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.
In a pointed message on X, Elon Musk warned that firms maintaining significant short positions in SpaceX over time face “very low” survival probability.
The statement comes amid post-IPO volatility for the rocket company, now trading under the ticker $SPCX.
The survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
Five weeks after what was described as the largest IPO in history, the stock had fallen roughly 30% from its peak above $2.6 trillion, briefly surpassing Microsoft and Amazon in market value. Short sellers celebrated gains of about $8.7 billion, but Musk’s reply underscores his long-term conviction.
The warning directly echoes a detailed bullish analysis arguing that Starship’s cost reductions could unlock a multi-trillion-dollar space economy. Projects ranging from solar power beamed from orbit and asteroid mining to orbital data centers and Mars terraforming were projected to create over $100 trillion in new market capitalization.
In this vision, SpaceX acts as the essential infrastructure provider, akin to AWS for cloud computing, capturing monopoly-like revenues from launches, crew transport, and data traffic across a rapidly expanding frontier.
This is far from the first time Musk has targeted short sellers. With Tesla, he has repeatedly framed persistent bears as destined for major losses. In July 2024, Musk declared that once Tesla achieves full autonomy and volume production of Optimus robots, “anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated. Even Gates,” referencing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ reported short bets.
Elon Musk reveals what Tesla stock surge could do to Bill Gates
Earlier, in 2018, he taunted shorts that they had “about three weeks before their short position explodes,” a remark followed by sharp stock gains. Musk has also called short selling “value destroying” and once suggested it “should be illegal,” viewing it as betting against innovation and progress.
Critics often dismiss Musk’s optimism as hype, especially when near-term metrics like quarterly deliveries or stock fluctuations disappoint.
Yet his pattern remains consistent: framing short positions against his companies as fundamentally misjudging exponential technological leaps. For SpaceX shorts, the message is clear: betting against multi-planetary ambitions and the infrastructure monopoly they enable carries existential risk for the firms involved.
As Musk and supporters see it, the space economy’s upside dwarfs Earth-bound valuation models, making today’s dips temporary in a decades-long ascent.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
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