Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) bear straight up lies about revenues in CNBC segment, still gets away with it
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is approaching the end of yet another quarter, and like clockwork, the company’s critics and short-sellers are out in full force. Also like clockwork, even those who have been consistently wrong about the electric car maker for years are once more given a platform to air their take on the company. Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research is one of these.
In a recent CNBC segment with finance veteran Joe Kernen, Johnson argued his bear case against Tesla once more. During his interview, Johnson noted that his firm, GLJ Research, has recommended a short against the electric car maker for some time now. Echoing his past talking points, Johnson insisted that Tesla’s hyper-growth narrative will fall apart in the second half of 2020, and that the company will lose access to capital markets next year.
While explaining his points, Johnson insisted that Tesla’s revenue had peaked in Q4 2018, and that things have been going downhill since then. This is a glaring error on the TSLA short’s part, since Q4 2018’s $7.226 billion revenue was lower than Q4 2019’s $7.384 billion. Interestingly enough, the CNBC host did not correct Johnson at all.
Today is the 10th anniversary of Tesla’s debut in the stock market, so it is quite interesting to see CNBC bringing over Gordon Johnson, who has long slammed the table with a $70 price target on TSLA stock before adjusting it to his current $87 per share price target, as a guest. Johnson is one of the more careless TSLA bears out there, after all, as highlighted perfectly by a gaffe he committed back in 2018 when he was still working as an analyst at Vertical Research Group.
During the time, Tesla was involved with a class action lawsuit filed by two investors, Kurt Friedman and Uppili Srinivasan, who alleged that the company and its executives misled shareholders about the progress of Model 3 production. In July 2018, the plaintiffs published a memo that included their arguments against the electric car maker. As sections of the memo spread online, Tesla bears such as Johnson misinterpreted its contents as the company admitting to misleading investors.
Johnson then wrote a note to Vertical’s clients headlined with “TSLA may have Admitted to Actionably False Statements,” citing the memo’s sections as a basis. But not long after its publication, and as it became evident that the note was inaccurate, Johnson had to revise his note with an “ERRATUM” on its headline. He also issued an apology to the firm’s clients. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” he wrote.
Tesla is not a perfect company, and there are aspects of its operations — such as its service — that need drastic improvements. The company also faces a lot of tough challenges ahead of it as it attempts to ramp its energy business and take on the trucking and pickup sector with the Semi and the Cybertruck. However, the gloom and doom scenarios peddled by bears like Johnson have been proven wrong time and time again, making his CNBC segment today quite surprising, if not a bit entertaining.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
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.
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.
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