Investor's Corner
Tesla flyover captures Model 3 rolling off Fremont’s giant tent assembly line
A recent flyover of Tesla’s Fremont factory has captured a rare footage of a freshly-built Model 3 rolling off GA4, the company’s newest general assembly line set up in a massive sprung structure. Located in the northeast end of Tesla’s main factory, the giant tent is currently seeing a flurry of activity as employees assemble the compact electric car.
The short clip of the flyover was shared by NBC host Raj Mathai, who noted that the overflow production line was added as a means to help Tesla achieve its self-imposed goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week by the end of the second quarter. Elon Musk, who has expressed enthusiasm about the sprung structure, responded to the video, stating that GA4 is working and that it has a “slightly higher quality” than more traditional assembly lines.
The future of #Tesla hinges on this gigantic tent. Overflow production line added in back lot of @tesla HQ. @elonmusk wants to pump out 5K #TeslaModel3 per week. @Teslarati pic.twitter.com/KhPtPHerzB
— Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) June 27, 2018
The flyover video revealed a number of interesting new scenes, the most notable of which is a freshly assembled silver Model 3 being driven off the end of GA4. Cars that are being constructed, as well as rows of finished vehicles, were also featured in NBC‘s brief clip.
Tesla’s sprung structure is massive, spanning the size of two football fields. Considering its unorthodox nature, GA4 has attracted its own fair share of critics, such as financial analyst Max Warburton from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., who dubbed the assembly line as “insanity.” In a statement to KTVU News, however, Dr. Fred Barez, director of San Jose State’s Electric Vehicle Technology, stated that Telsa’s giant tent is actually not that unusual, since it’s being used throughout the world, especially in the field of aviation.
“It is not unusual because he understands the problems that he’s facing. He comes up with outside the box solutions. It is definitely in the right direction because this tent facility is going to double the capacity. It’s going to at least improve that capacity,” Dr. Barez said.
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As the end of June approaches, Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) has become a battleground between bulls and short-sellers, with Goldman Sachs analyst David Tamberrino stating that Tesla would likely only deliver 22,000 units of the Model 3 during the second quarter, despite production likely to hit 5,000 vehicles per week in the final week of Q2 2018. It should be noted, however, that earlier this year, Tamberrino also issued a report stating that Tesla would only manufacture 1,500 Model 3 per week for the second quarter, making his current bearish expectations slightly optimistic by his own standards.
Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research, however, has a more optimistic outlook. In a recent statement to The Street, the Tesla bull noted that Tesla is still on track to profitability on Q3 or Q4 2018, regardless of whether the company achieves its Model 3 production targets this second quarter or not.
“You should not look at how many cars are produced. Instead, you should look at how much money each vehicle is bringing in, and as Tesla ramps production their free cash flow will improve dramatically. The long-term, five- to seven-year trajectory is the real story of Tesla,” Ferragu said.
Tesla stock continues to hold its position in the market, with shares of the electric car maker standing its ground after a steep 6% plunge last week. As of Wednesday’s intraday, Tesla stock is trading up 1.37% at $346.70 per share.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
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Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), is set to report its earnings for the second quarter today in what will be its first-ever earnings call since going public in July.
SpaceX is trading down roughly 25 percent from its IPO. These early stock signals are usually a bit tumultuous, and considering this is the first company actively launching rockets that is available on the stock exchange, investors might have a tendency to be a bit skittish.
However, there are going to be some details that investors will hear for the first time today on the earnings call. Here’s what to look for:
Wall Street Expectations
Revenue is expected to fall somewhere around $6.8 billion, and will be heavily driven by Starlink, which is SpaceX’s widely popular satellite internet platform that has been adopted by numerous airlines, cruise ships, and other maritime operations. It is also available for consumers at home or in their cars.
Earnings Per Share (EPS) expectations fall at a net loss of $0.23 per share. Wall Street sees this as a total net loss of roughly $1.9 billion.
EBITDA is expected to come in between $2 billion and $2.1 billion.
What Investors Want to Know
Tesla uses the Say platform to help work with both retail and institutional investors to answer relevant and quality questions that address concerns or questions that they might have.
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However, SpaceX is doing things differently, as the company launched its own Investor Relations website where these questions are being fielded. Just like the Tesla questions, they seem to be less focused on the operational tasks and overall progress of the company, and more novelty.
Here are the top five:
- Has the team thought about what possibilities there are with your mascot Asteroid? Whether it’s starting additional foundations for kids in its name, helping kids learn about space, etc. Kids are our future, and Asteroid would be a fun and easy way to help.
- Baby Asteroid is already making a difference through charity around the world. Could SpaceX take it even further with programs that inspire kids to explore space?
- SpaceX has some legendary vehicle names. Would you ever allow the public to name a Starship, even knowing there is a 99% chance it becomes Shipy McShipface?
- When can we expect to see more footage of the Human Landing System?
- Will Asteroid (your mascot) go to Mars?
SpaceX will report its earnings today, August 4, at 4:30 P.M. EDT.
SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.
The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.
Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.
The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.
As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.
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Elon Musk
Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get
Tesla’s Optimus chief corrected himself on X, confirming a staggering 10 million robot production target.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus program has a new number attached to it, after Ashok Elluswamy, the executive who has run the humanoid robot program since June 2025, posted a three word correction on X Thursday, “Correction, 10 million robots.”
The line clarifies the long term annual capacity Tesla is building toward its planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas, a figure Musk has cited repeatedly since last year’s shareholder meeting.
The scale is worth noting, because ten million robots a year would mean Tesla building more units annually than most countries sell in new cars. Tesla has framed this as a second line, not the first. The buildout is happening in two phases: a roughly one million unit per year line inside Tesla’s Fremont factory, installed on the floor space vacated when Model S and Model X production ended earlier this year, and a much larger dedicated facility under construction at Giga Texas that broke ground on its first steel structure in May. That Texas facility is the one Elluswamy’s correction refers to, and is expected to reach volume production sometime in 2027.
Correction, 10 million robots https://t.co/0z4nyQNTzp
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) July 30, 2026
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Elluswamy took over Optimus from Milan Kovac last summer and has spent the months since talking up the program’s trajectory. Elon Musk has also floated the ten million figure at Tesla’s 2025 shareholder meeting.
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Ending Model S and Model X production to make room for the first Optimus line was one of the more consequential manufacturing decisions in the company’s recent history, retiring two flagship vehicles in favor of a robot that has yet to enter mass production. Musk has previously estimated per unit production costs at $20,000 to $25,000 once Tesla reaches a million units a year, though he hasn’t said what that cost looks like at ten times the volume.
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