Investor's Corner
Tesla becomes 3rd most-shorted stock behind AMZN, AAPL as Q3 rush begins
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) recently lost its place as the No.1 most shorted company in the US stock market, giving away the position to Amazon. Even more recently, Apple also overtook Tesla in the US market’s rankings for most-shorted companies, making the electric car maker as the 3rd most-shorted stock in the US market as of writing.
The updates to Tesla’s short interest was posted yesterday by S3 Partners LLC Managing Director of Predictive Analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky, who shared Tesla’s latest stats on Twitter. Dusaniwsky noted that Tesla’s short interest currently stands at $9.6 billion, which corresponds to 31.83 million shares, or 24.96% of the company’s float. The S3 Managing Director also noted that Tesla shorts are currently up $1.68 billion since Elon Musk announced his intentions to take the company private last month.
$TSLA short interest $9.60 bn, 31.83 mm shares short, 24.96% of float. Shs shorted down 2.9mm since The Tweet.#tesla is now only the 3rd largest U.S. short behind $AMZN & $AAPL. Shorts are up $404mm in MTM profits today,up $1.68 billion since The Tweet & down only $27 million YTD pic.twitter.com/coB9E3pTtb
— Ihor Dusaniwsky🇺🇦 (@ihors3) September 4, 2018
Tesla’s latest stats on its short interest shows what appears to be a slight yet consistent decline in the number of TSLA shares that are held short. Just last week, for example, the S3 Partners executive noted that Tesla’s short interest stood at $9.83 billion, which translates to around 32.43 million shares, or 25.43% of the company’s float.
Back in May, there were 39 million TSLA shares that were held short — the highest in Tesla’s history. That being said, as Tesla started to find its footing with the production of the Model 3, the number of Tesla shares that are held short have seen a steady decline, dropping to 34.9 million shares at the end of July. Even amidst the controversy surrounding Elon Musk’s attempt to take Tesla private in August, Tesla’s short interest seems to have continued its slight decline, falling to 32.7 million shares by the middle of the month.
Tesla is currently attempting to hit its Model 3 production targets for the third quarter. After hitting its then-elusive goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week at the end of Q2 2018, Tesla is now looking to sustain and ramp the manufacturing of the electric sedan. This is highlighted in the company’s production target of building 50,000-55,000 Model 3 in Q3 2018. As of Friday last week, reports have claimed that Tesla had produced more than 34,700 Model 3 in the quarter so far. That’s less than 16,000 vehicles away from the lower end of the company’s Q3 target for the Model 3.
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The final months of Tesla’s quarters usually correspond to unorthodox measures that the company adopts to meet its self-imposed targets. Back in Q1 2018, Tesla’s goal was only to build 2,500 Model 3 in a week — a feat that was almost achieved after a seven-day blitz that saw the company manufacture just over 2,000 of the electric cars in one week. In Q2 2018, Tesla adopted even more radical strategies to hit its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week. Some of these strategies involved building GA4, an entirely new assembly line set up at the grounds of the Fremont factory, as well as air-freighting robots and equipment from Europe to the United States to quickly address production bottlenecks in Gigafactory 1.
With these in mind, it would not be surprising if Tesla initiates an aggressive push for the Model 3 and its operations this September. With less than four weeks to go before the end of Q3, and with the company actively trying to become profitable this quarter, the coming days would likely be very compelling.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
SpaceX stock did the opposite of what most of Wall Street expected this week, when the day designed to be its most dangerous turned into a rally, and the rally kept going.
Thursday marked the first major lockup expiration since SpaceX’s June IPO, making roughly 911.5 million insider held shares eligible to trade for the first time, more than doubling the company’s public float. Analysts and short sellers had spent weeks bracing for a flood of selling, especially after the stock fell 13 percent following its first earnings report as a public company on Tuesday. Instead, shares rose 6.1 percent Thursday to close at $114.92, and by Friday they were trading near $129, up more than another 12 percent on the day.
SpaceX shorts get warned by Musk ally, echoing Tesla’s early struggles
The setup made the outcome notable. Short interest had climbed to roughly 34 percent of the float heading into earnings, among the highest of any large cap stock, with about 95 percent of available shares to borrow already on loan. CEO Elon Musk warned short sellers twice in the weeks before the lockup, writing on X that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” then following up on the morning of earnings with “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”
When the newly unlocked shares hit the market and the selloff never showed up, some of that short position appears to have started unwinding. TipRanks reported that options activity shifted toward bullish strategies like put selling and risk reversals following the rally, with roughly $600 million in options premium trading Thursday alone. Retail buyers also stepped in during the earnings dip, according to Vanda Research.
The fundamentals behind the stock have not changed much in a week. SpaceX’s revenue nearly doubled year over year to $7.8 billion, with Starlink subscribers doubling to 12 million and the company’s AI segment growing 247 percent. What spooked investors on Tuesday was the spending side. Capital expenditures jumped to more than $18 billion for the quarter, up from $2.8 billion a year earlier, with AI investment alone rising from $749 million to $15.8 billion. Wall Street remains split on whether that spending is building infrastructure SpaceX needs or outrunning what the business can currently support, a debate Teslarati has tracked since shares first came under pressure.
None of that resolves the bigger question hanging over the stock. Thursday’s release was only the first of nine staggered lockup tranches, with roughly $800 billion worth of additional shares scheduled to become eligible through October, and Musk’s own stake stays locked until next June. If this week is any indication, the market is treating that supply as something it can absorb rather than something to fear, at least for now.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck production snaps back after ugly supplier fight
Cybertrucks are piling up again at Giga Texas after Tesla’s court win against a parts supplier.
Cybertruck production at Giga Texas is showing its first visible recovery since Tesla sued a supplier last month over withheld manufacturing tooling.
Aerial observer Joe Tegtmeyer flew over the Austin factory Wednesday morning and counted roughly 100 or more Cybertrucks filling the outbound lot, a sharp jump from the thin numbers seen in recent weeks. The flyover came a day after a judge granted Tesla a temporary restraining order against Angstrom Automotive Group, the parts supplier at the center of the dispute.
Tesla filed an emergency lawsuit in late July after Angstrom told the automaker it planned to close the Troy, Texas facility where Tesla’s die-cast tools, trim dies and other Cybertruck stamping equipment were housed. According to Tesla’s complaint, a shipment of 700 finished parts never left the building, and when Tesla sent representatives to retrieve its equipment, accompanied by law enforcement, they were turned away. Angstrom allegedly then asked for an extra $250,000 a week to keep operating, which Tesla’s filing described as holding its own property for ransom.
TESLA: U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Wolfe of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division granted Tesla a Temporary Restraining Order and Writ of Replevin in its dispute with Angstrom Automotive (Case No. 6:26-cv-00477).
The order authorizes… https://t.co/E1DKcQSxMn pic.twitter.com/LR8aAiV2Og
— S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr) August 5, 2026
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The restraining order gives Tesla immediate right of entry to Angstrom’s facility to recover the tooling. It is temporary, with a fuller hearing still to come, but the speed of Wednesday’s rebound suggests the Angstrom shortage was indeed the main bottleneck limiting Cybertruck output. Outbound lot counts are an imperfect measure of actual production, since finished trucks can sit for days before shipping, but a lot that full after a lean stretch is a meaningful signal.
Cybertruck output at Giga Texas has fluctuated all year as Tesla worked through supply issues and introduced new trims, including a cheaper Dual Motor AWD version that drew strong early demand.
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya has cautioned investors shorting SpaceX shares, drawing a direct parallel to the intense short-selling pressure Tesla faced in its early public years.
Responding to reports of elevated short interest in the newly public rocket, satellite, and AI company, Palihapitiya noted that similar dynamics played out with Tesla, where aggressive short sellers ultimately “went broke.”
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO on record, pricing at $135 per share. Shares quickly surged to an all-time high of $225.64 just days later, briefly implying a valuation exceeding $2 trillion. The stock has since retreated sharply amid valuation concerns, lockup expiration fears, and broader market dynamics.
By early August, it traded near $108–$125, representing a roughly 50 percent decline from the peak and bringing the market capitalization closer to the $1.5–1.7 trillion range. On August 4, shares closed up more than 9 percent at $125.33 ahead of earnings before facing pressure in after-hours and premarket trading.
Short interest has climbed dramatically. According to S3 Partners data widely cited in market reports, short positions reached approximately 219.3 million shares by late July, about 34 percent of the limited public float of roughly 640 million shares, and represented a notional value of around $24.6 billion.
Utilization of shares available to borrow hit 95 percent, with borrow fees rising. This level of shorting exceeded the dollar value of short bets against Tesla at the time and built rapidly ahead of two catalysts: the company’s first post-IPO earnings and an August 6 lockup expiration that could free up to 911.5 million additional shares.
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CEO Elon Musk has issued warnings of his own. In mid-July, as short interest approached one-third of the float, he posted that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” reiterating his view that the company could ultimately be worth more than Earth if it achieves its goals.
On August 4, just before earnings, Musk responded to the latest short-interest data by saying, “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”
SpaceX delivered its first quarterly results as a public company after the close on August 4. Second-quarter revenue rose 92 percent year-over-year to $7.8 billion, beating consensus estimates near $6.8–6.9 billion.
The net loss narrowed to $541 million, or 9 cents per share, better than the roughly 23–24 cent loss expected. Starlink/connectivity contributed about $4.3 billion (up 66 percent), while the AI business generated $2.6 billion (up roughly 250 percent). Capital expenditures were heavy at $18.4 billion, largely tied to AI infrastructure. Management projected a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by year-end 2026 and outlined a path toward $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030.
The combination of Chamath’s historical reminder, Musk’s repeated alerts, and the company’s ambitious growth targets underscores the high-stakes debate surrounding SPCX. Short sellers are positioned for near-term supply pressure from the lockup, while long-term bulls point to Starlink scale, Starship progress, and AI compute expansion as reasons the bears may ultimately face the same fate as many early Tesla skeptics.
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