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Tesla (TSLA) gets new PTs after Battery Day breakthroughs

Credit: @FutureJurvetson | Twitter

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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a variety of new price targets from investment firms following the conclusion of the company’s Battery Day event last night. Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Baird analysts all raised their outlook for the electric automaker’s stock following the successful Battery Day presentation, which revealed Tesla’s plans for a new battery structure, more efficient manufacturing, and its roadmap for more affordable vehicles. Morgan Stanley also commended Tesla’s event but did not increase its price target.

Tesla stock suffered a small pullback in value during and following the event, which can likely be attributed to the fact that the revealings at Battery Day will not be available immediately. CEO Elon Musk stated a day prior to the event that some of the developments will take a few years to come to fruition.

However, some firms are advising that investors take advantage of the pullback in stock value. Tesla’s announcements last night proved that the company is head and shoulders above the rest of the EV sector in terms of manufacturing, performance, and battery technology.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney raised his price target on TSLA stock from $295 to $400 and maintained a “Neutral” rating, according to TheFly. The increased outlook from Delaney is based on Tesla’s importance in the future widespread adoption of electric cars, as well as potential margin upside from software. Delaney wrote in a note to Goldman investors that Tesla’s goals to produce its own battery cells, along with a possible 100 GWh capacity by 2022, and 3 TWh in 2030, shows the company’s plan is set and it has a roadmap to achieve it.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank’s Emmanuel Rosner upgraded his rating on Tesla stock from “Hold” to “Buy” and raised his price target from $400 to $500. Rosner stated that although Wall Street’s reaction to the Tesla event was not positive, it is an opportunity for investors to take advantage of a discount on the share price. “With the stock price indicated down post-market traders ‘sell the news,’ we recommend longer-term investors to take advantage of weakness to buy Tesla as the best way to invest in vehicle electrification,” Rosner wrote to investors, according to CNBC.

Tesla debuts new 4680 battery cell: 500% more energy, 6X power, range increase

Baird

Ben Kallo of Baird increased his price target to $360 from $332 and reiterated his “Neutral” rating on the stock. The minimal increase in Kallo’s price target is because he believes the company’s current valuation already reflects significant disruption potential. “With the Battery Day in the rearview, we think there is a lack of upcoming catalysts and are cautious about demand given the recessionary environment,” Kallo writes to investors. He believes the company’s future holders should take advantage of pullbacks in stock price, MarketWatch reported.

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Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas stated that Tesla Battery Day “largely lived up to the hype, by didn’t clearly exceed it.” However, Jonas indicated that the plan to reduce cell cost and increase total investment cost was “substantial for this industry.” The analyst added that “applying Tesla’s 69% targeted savings to this figure (implying $174mm/10 GWh) to the 3 TWh target implies over $50bn of battery capacity investment needed to Tesla alone and $350bn for the industry to get to 20 TWh.

At the time of writing, TSLA stock was trading at $398.42.

Disclaimer: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk and SpaceX shrugs off the trading day Wall Street feared most

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Rendering of Elon Musk overlooking a Starship fleet (Credit: Grok)

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.

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Tesla Cybertruck production resumes after supplier dispute: Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | X
Tesla Cybertruck production resumes after supplier dispute: Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | Youtube

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 quietly made the Cybertruck even stronger

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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.

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Investor's Corner

SpaceX shorts get warned by Musk ally, echoing Tesla’s early struggles

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SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12
SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12 (Credit: SpaceX)

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.

SpaceX and Nvidia team up on Musk’s orbital AI bet

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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