Investor's Corner
Tesla reportedly flies in 6 planes’ worth of robots in latest Model 3 push
As part of its ongoing Model 3 push, Tesla has reportedly flown in six airplanes’ worth of new robots from Europe to California. According to sources familiar with the matter, the deliveries of the new equipment comes amidst Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s initiatives to hit the company’s self-imposed goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week by the end of June.
The sources, who spoke under anonymity to Reuters, stated that the deliveries of the robots were done “in a massive hurry.” One of the two individuals who spoke to the publication also noted that the first two shipments have arrived at Reno, Nevada. The robots will reportedly be installed in Gigafactory 1’s battery module production line.
Tesla, as of Friday, has so far declined to comment on the matter.
The practice of flying new equipment from one continent to another is rather unorthodox in the automotive industry. Transport by air, after all, is incredibly costly. Nevertheless, the deliveries of the new robots underscore the urgency that the electric car maker is feeling at the moment, considering its goals for the Model 3.
One of the sources also noted that engineers from Tesla’s German engineering arm, Grohmann, have been deployed to Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to address further production bottlenecks in the production of the compact electric car’s battery packs.
The Tesla Model 3 has been a particular pain point for the Elon Musk-led company. The vehicle has so far missed its production targets since the company began manufacturing it last year. During the Q1 2018 earnings call, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reiterated his stance about the company’s capability to hit a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week.
As noted in Tesla’s Q1 2018 Update Letter, the Model 3 line would be undergoing a series of production shutdowns that are designed to make way for improvements in the electric car’s manufacturing line. This was also outlined in a leaked email from Musk to his employees last April, which explained the upgrades that would be coming after the scheduled shutdowns.
According to Musk’s correspondence, the halt in April would enable the company to produce 3,000-4,000 Model 3 per week. Following this would be a shutdown late May, which would ultimately allow the company to achieve a rate of 5,000-6,000 Model 3 per week, thanks to what Musk described as a “comprehensive set of upgrades” to the production line.
Tesla has recently been showing encouraging signs about its Model 3 push. Just last week, the Elon Musk-led company registered 7,237 new Model 3 VINs, its largest single batch to date. Another leaked email from Musk also revealed that the company is producing 500 vehicles a day, or 3,500 Model 3 a week.
Just recently, the company also opened orders for the Model 3’s dual-motor AWD and Performance variants. The two new options of the Model 3, as stated by Musk in a previous tweet, will be offered by Tesla as soon as the company is able to manufacture 5,000 Model 3 per week consistently. Considering that Tesla just sent out the first batch of configuration invites for the dual-motor AWD and Performance Model 3, it appears that the company is starting to become a bit more confident in its ability to manufacture its most ambitious vehicle to date.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
Tesla received a price target upgrade just on the heels of what was a crazy successful quarter for its automotive business, as the company reported a delivery beat of over 15 percent for Q2.
Jefferies analysts are upping Tesla’s price target (NASDAQ: TSLA) to $400 from $375, while maintaining their “Hold” rating on shares, and the strong automotive deliveries from Q2 is a big reason. However, there are some other catalysts that Jefferies believes position Tesla for a strong position in the second half of the year.
Strong Deliveries
Tesla reported 480,000 deliveries for Q2, while Wall Street was between 395,000 and 405,000, as an overall consensus. It was an incredibly strong quarter from a delivery perspective, and Tesla sold well more than it produced during the three months.
Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent
While vehicle deliveries are not necessarily looked at in the light that they used to be, Tesla still maintains a lot of advantages for keeping deliveries strong. With the loss of the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year, Tesla still maintains a strong demand case for its EVs.
Robotaxi Performance
Tesla has been operating Robotaxi for over a year now, as it launched in Austin in mid-2025. That program has expanded to Houston and Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and, most recently, Miami, Florida, the suite’s first appearance in the Sunshine State.
While the Robotaxi suite is still in its early phases and Tesla is working through things like fleet size and wait times, the company has been able to undercut the pricing of its competitors and has a great safety record.
Merger Speculation with Tesla and SpaceX
This is perhaps the biggest topic that many are speaking about with Tesla and SpaceX, and it is the one thing that seems to be on the mind of every investor.
Jefferies warns that growing talk of a Tesla-SpaceX merger could cause Tesla stock to trade more like a SpaceX proxy, which may disconnect it from underlying automotive fundamentals. SpaceX has a lot going for it, especially its compute deals that have been widely publicized as of late.
Profitability in New Projects Could Take Some Time
Tesla has a few long-term ventures in the pipeline, most notably the Optimus project and Robotaxi, which is launched but will take several years to expand to a meaningful level that resonates with everyday people.
This is something that investors need to be careful of. Tesla’s projects could take some time to round out, so Jefferies advises that these may carry initial losses, rather than immediate profit. Seasoned Tesla investors have echoed something like this for a long time; they knew going in it would not be an open-and-shut strategy. It was going to take time.
These new projects are no different.
Investor's Corner
NASA taps SpaceX to launch the telescope that could unlock new worlds
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope heads to orbit this August aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with massive scientific ambitions.
SpaceX is set to play a central role in one of NASA’s most anticipated science missions in years. The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world, will carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman is now in final preparations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where on June 26 technicians used a crane to lift the observatory into a specialized stand for fueling and pre-launch testing.
Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief of astronomy, whose career helped shape how the agency approaches space science.
NASA chose SpaceX Falcon Heavy because of Roman’s needs to reach a specific orbit far from Earth, well beyond where a standard Falcon 9 can deliver it. The Falcon Heavy, which first flew in 2018, has since become NASA’s go-to option for missions that need serious muscle without the cost and complexity of older launch systems.
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Roman will carry a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, meaning it can photograph enormous swaths of the universe in a single shot rather than the narrow slices Hubble captures. That difference in scale is significant. While Hubble reshaped our understanding of the cosmos over 30 years, Roman is built to work faster and wider, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies at once.
One of Roman’s most compelling capabilities is its potential to discover and photograph planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and with enough precision to directly image planets that would otherwise be lost. That means scientists could study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of distant worlds rather than simply confirming they exist. Combined with Roman’s sweeping field of view, the telescope could detect thousands of exoplanets, and some of those planets may be in habitable zones where liquid water could exist. No telescope currently in operation has this level of power and capability. That capability alone could change what we know about other worlds, and perhaps finally answer the question: are we the only intelligent lifeforms in existence?
What Roman actually finds once it reaches orbit is an open question, and that is exactly what makes this launch worth watching.
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