Investor's Corner
Top 3 questions Tesla institutional investors want answered in the Q1 2021 earnings call
Tesla’s institutional investors have voted on the top three questions they would like the company to answer during the Q1 2021 earnings call. The questions were submitted through investor communications platform Say, a startup that aims to create and develop investor communication tools.
Question 1 – Lithium-ion and Tesla’s 4680 batteries
One question an institutional investor submitted that received the most shares and votes related to Tesla’s 4680 battery cell.
“Proponents of alternative grid storage technologies claim that lithium-ion is unsuited to long-term (e.g., intra-seasonal) storage at scale due to vampire drain. Could 4680 address this limitation? Is the limitation even relevant for changing the energy equation?” asked the institutional investor.
During Tesla Battery Day, Drew Baglino—Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering—noted that the lithium-ion industry was only in its third decade of high volume production. “It has so far to go to achieve similar scale and simplicity,” said Baglino.
Question 2 – Tesla Gigafactory Berlin’s Model 3 production
Another institutional investor asked about any production improvements Tesla may apply to Giga Berlin’s Model 3 line.
“You’ve suggested that between a 5-10x improvement is achievable in automotive production vs. the first Model 3 line on a first-principles physics analysis. Where does Berlin sit relative to that limit?” the institutional investors asked.
Tesla investors may recall the Model 3 “production hell” the company experienced several years ago, which resulted in the construction of a production line housed in a sprung structure, GA4. Since those early days of Model 3 production, Tesla has notably improved the assembly of its more affordable sedan.
Question 3 – Tesla’s Urban Transport Vehicle
The last institutional investor question that Tesla may need to answer relates to Elon Musk’s mention of an urban transport vehicle in his Master Plan Part Deux.
“Master Plan Part Deux talks about an urban transport vehicle that is smaller than a traditional bus with greater areal density achieved by removing the central aisle (like a 21st-century Soviet marshrutka except with everyone seated!) Do you have any update to share on that goal?” asked the institutional investor.
In Master Plan Part Deux, Musk described a high-passenger-density urban transport designed without a center aisle. A fleet manager would operate the urban transport instead of a “bus driver.” Musk predicted that Tesla’s urban transport would minimize traffic congestion.
A few years later, Musk created Boring Company, a tunneling company, to address traffic congestion. The Boring Company’s first operational tunnel, the LVCC Loop in Las Vegas, will welcome its first riders in June. LVCC Loop visitors will ride inside Tesla vehicles through the tunnel. However, an urban transport—like the one Musk described in his Master Plan—might be a better fit for Boring Company.
Tesla will answer questions from retail investors and institutional investors during the Q1 2020 earnings call on Monday, April 26, 2021. Tesla will release an Update Letter after the market closes, and the earnings call will start at 2:30 pm Pacific Time or 5:30 pm Eastern Time.
The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com or reach out to me at maria@teslarati.com.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.
In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:
“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”
This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.
The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.
The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.
This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
