Investor's Corner
Tesla starts recruitment efforts in China as details on first Shanghai site emerge
Reports have emerged that Tesla has started its recruitment efforts in China. The news comes less than a week after a business license was granted to Tesla Motors Hong Kong Co., LLC, the electric car maker’s HK division, to operate and establish a solely-owned facility in the country.
Tesla’s hiring efforts started on May 16, with the company’s official WeChat account posting job listings for a Tesla facility in Shanghai. Among the positions listed in by the company were project managers, tax commissioners, government affairs managers, financial service area managers, low-voltage electrical test engineers, and IT field system administrators.
As noted in a report from Sohu, a local news agency, Tesla Motors HK’s recently-granted business license lists the company’s address as No. 168 Tonghui Road, Nanhui New Town, which is in the same area as the Shanghai Lingang Industrial Service Center. A field reporter from the news agency visited Tesla’s listed site on May 15, but so far, it appears that construction is yet to take place on the location.
The plot of land listed at Tesla Motors HK’s business license. [Credit: Sohu News]
Tesla’s registered capital for its first Shanghai site is listed at 100 million yuan, which corresponds to $15.8 million. Interestingly, the industrial and commercial information outlined in the business scope of Tesla’s first Shanghai site does not mention the production of battery modules or electric vehicles. As noted in a report from JQK News, the facility would instead be involved in the “technical development, technical services, technical consulting, technology transfer in the field of electric vehicles and parts, batteries, energy storage equipment, and photovoltaic products.” The facility will also be providing “supporting services, electric vehicle demonstration, and product promotion.”
Overall, it appears that Tesla’ first Shanghai facility will not be the company’s Gigafactory that Elon Musk teased during the Q1 2018 earnings call. The factory, which Musk said would produce both battery modules and vehicles, is expected to manufacture the upcoming Model Y crossover SUV, as well as some of the Model 3. As noted by Chinese business news agency EastMoney.com, the listed location in Tesla Motors HK’s business license is simply far too limited to accommodate Tesla’s factory.
Speculations are emerging about the location of the China Gigafactory, however. On May 15, a report from the China Securities Net was released, citing informed sources who reported that Tesla had begun work on a factory in Shanghai. The alleged location of the factory, according to the sources, was a piece of land adjacent to the seashore along the seawall of Lingang. According to a local news reporter who visited the site, the location did not show prominent signs of construction, though several heavy equipment were parked in the area. A worker who was on the site noted that they were instructed to raise the plot of land. The worker, however, did not mention Tesla.
A factory in China is a pertinent part of Tesla’s goals for expansion. During the company’s Q3 2017 earnings call last November, Musk stated that having a factory in China is “really the only way to make cars affordable” in the country, which hosts one of the most lucrative markets for electric vehicles. Musk mentioned Tesla’s China facility in the Q4 2017 earnings call as well, when he teased that capital investments related to the Model Y will likely be made this year.
Overall, it was China’s pledge to cut import tariffs and remove ownership restrictions for foreign carmakers operating in the country that seems to have pushed the company’s foray into the Asian economic superpower further. Before China softened its stance on foreign automakers like Tesla, Musk likened its initiatives in the country to “competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes.”
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a price target boost from its biggest bear, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research, who raised his expected trading level to one that is 95 percent lower than its current trading level.
Johnson pushed his Tesla price target from $19.05 to $25.28 on Wednesday, while maintaining the ‘Sell’ rating that has been present on the stock for a long time. GLJ has largely been recognized as the biggest skeptic of Elon Musk’s company, being particularly critical of the automotive side of things.
Tesla has routinely been called out by Johnson for negative delivery growth, what he calls “weakening demand,” and price cuts that have occurred in past years, all pointing to them as desperate measures to sell its cars.
Johnson has also said that Tesla is extremely overvalued and is too reliant on regulatory credits for profitability. Other analysts on the bullish side recognize Tesla as a company that is bigger than just its automotive side.
Many believe it is a leader in autonomous driving, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, who believes Tesla will have a widely successful 2026, especially if it can come through on its targets and schedules for Robotaxi and Cybercab.
Justifying the price target this week, Johnson said that the revised valuation is based on “reality rather than narrative.” Tesla has been noted by other analysts and financial experts as a stock that trades on narrative, something Johnson obviously disagrees with.
Dan Nathan, a notorious skeptic of the stock, turned bullish late last year, recognizing the company’s shares trade on “technicals and sentiment.” He said, “From a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
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Johnson has remained very consistent with this sentiment regarding Tesla and his beliefs regarding its true valuation, and has never shied away from putting his true thoughts out there.
Tesla shares closed at $431.40 today, about 95 percent above where Johnson’s new price target lies.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock received a price target update from Pierre Ferragu of Wall Street firm New Street Research, citing the company’s growing lead in self-driving and autonomy.
On Tuesday, Ferragu bumped his price target from $520 to $600, stating that the consensus from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was that Tesla’s lead in autonomy has been sustained, is growing, and sits at a multiple-year lead over its competitors.
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“The signal from Vegas is loud and clear,” the analyst writes. “The industry isn’t catching up to Tesla; it is actively validating Tesla’s strategy…just with a 12-year lag.”
The note shows that the company’s prowess in vehicle autonomy is being solidified by lagging competitors that claim to have the best method. The only problem is that Tesla’s Vision-based approach, which it adopted back in 2022 with the Model 3 and Model Y initially, has been proven to be more effective than competitors’ approach, which utilizes other technology, such as LiDAR and sensors.
Currently, Tesla shares are sitting at around $433, as the company’s stock price closed at $432.96 on Tuesday afternoon.
Ferragu’s consensus on Tesla shares echoes that of other Wall Street analysts who are bullish on the company’s stock and position within the AI, autonomy, and robotics sector.
Dan Ives of Wedbush wrote in a note in mid-December that he anticipates Tesla having a massive 2026, and could reach a $3 trillion valuation this year, especially with the “AI chapter” taking hold of the narrative at the company.
Ives also said that the big step in the right direction for Tesla will be initiating production of the Cybercab, as well as expanding on the Robotaxi program through the next 12 months:
“…as full-scale volume production begins with the autonomous and robotics roadmap…The company has started to test the all-important Cybercab in Austin over the past few weeks, which is an incremental step towards launching in 2026 with important volume production of Cybercabs starting in April/May, which remains the golden goose in unlocking TSLA’s AI valuation.”
Tesla analyst breaks down delivery report: ‘A step in the right direction’
Tesla has transitioned from an automaker to a full-fledged AI company, and its Robotaxi and Cybercab programs, fueled by the Full Self-Driving suite, are leading the charge moving forward. In 2026, there are major goals the company has outlined. The first is removing Safety Drivers from vehicles in Austin, Texas, one of the areas where it operates a ride-hailing service within the U.S.
Ultimately, Tesla will aim to launch a Level 5 autonomy suite to the public in the coming years.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Q4 delivery numbers are better than they initially look: analyst
The Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner shared his thoughts in a post on his website.
Longtime Tesla analyst and Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster has shared his insights on Tesla’s Q4 2025 deliveries. As per the analyst, Tesla’s numbers are actually better than they first appear.
Munster shared his thoughts in a post on his website.
Normalized December Deliveries
Munster noted that Tesla delivered 418k vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2025, slightly below Street expectations of 420k but above the whisper number of 415k. Tesla’s reported 16% year-over-year decline, compared to +7% in September, is largely distorted by the timing of the tax credit expiration, which pulled forward demand.
“Taking a step back, we believe September deliveries pulled forward approximately 55k units that would have otherwise occurred in December or March. For simplicity, we assume the entire pull-forward impacted the December quarter. Under this assumption, September growth would have been down ~5% absent the 55k pull-forward, a Deepwater estimate tied to the credit’s expiration.
“For December deliveries to have declined ~5% year over year would imply total deliveries of roughly 470k. Subtracting the 55k units pulled into September results in an implied December delivery figure of approximately 415k. The reported 418k suggests that, when normalizing for the tax credit timing, quarter-over-quarter growth has been consistently down ~5%. Importantly, this ~5% decline represents an improvement from the ~13% declines seen in both the March and June 2025 quarters.“
Tesla’s United States market share
Munster also estimated that Q4 as a whole might very well show a notable improvement in Tesla’s market share in the United States.
“Over the past couple of years, based on data from Cox Automotive, Tesla has been losing U.S. EV market share, declining to just under 50%. Based on data for October and November, Cox estimates that total U.S. EV sales were down approximately 35%, compared to Tesla’s just reported down 16% for the full quarter. For the first two months of the quarter, Cox reported Tesla market share of roughly a 65% share, up from under 50% in the September quarter.
“While this data excludes December, the quarter as a whole is likely to show a material improvement in Tesla’s U.S. EV market share.“
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