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Tesla (TSLA) Q1 2020 results: Beats on revenue, Model Y sets historic profit on launch

(Credit: Tesla China/Twitter)

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Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) first-quarter earnings for 2020 saw the electric car maker post $5.985 billion in revenue, slightly beating estimates from Wall Street. The results, which were discussed at length in an Update Letter, were released after the closing bell on Wednesday, April 29.

Tesla ended the first quarter on a surprisingly optimistic note. Despite the ongoing pressures from the coronavirus outbreak, Tesla managed to deliver 88,400 vehicles and produce over 102,000, comprised of 76,200 Model 3 and Model Y and 12,200 Model S and X. 

Gigafactory Shanghai facility also reopened after a brief government-mandated shutdown in China due to the initial onset of the pandemic, and has since ramped its Model 3 production activities. Tesla stock has also proven resilient amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, rising 70% year to date. 

The following are the key points in Tesla’s Q1 2020 Update Letter.

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REVENUE

Tesla reported revenue of $5.985 billion for the first quarter. In contrast, Wall St. expected Tesla to report revenue of $5.85 billion as per data aggregated by NASDAQ.

EARNINGS

Tesla shareholders saw non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.24 in the fourth quarter, beating Wall St’s estimates. In comparison, Wall Street expected Tesla to report a loss of $0.18 per share for the first quarter. 

CASH

Despite Q1 being a traditionally soft quarter as per automotive trends, Tesla was able to increase its cash by $1.8 billion. This hiked up the company’s total cash to around $8.1 billion, which is partly due to a $2.3 billion capital raise that was conducted in the first quarter. 

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Operating cash flow less capex (free cash flow) negative $895M in Q1 (of which $981M outflow due to inventory growth)
  • $283M GAAP operating income; 4.7% operating margin in Q1
  • $16M GAAP net income; $227M non-GAAP net income (ex-SBC) in Q1
  • Gross margin at Giga Shanghai approaching level of US-made Model 3
  • Model Y gross margin positive in Q1
  • Solar Roof production exceeded 4 MW per week, enough for up to 1,000 homes
  • Tesla Semi deliveries are shifted to 2021

TESLA ENERGY

The first quarter saw milestones for Tesla Energy. Apart from Solar Roof production in Gigafactory New York exceeding 4 MW per week, which is enough for 1,000 homes. The 100,000th Tesla Powerwall has also been installed, highlighting the potential of residential battery storage. Demand for the 3 MW Tesla Megapack is also healthy, being beyond the company’s capability to produce the grid-scale systems. 

GIGAFACTORY SHANGHAI AND BERLIN

Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai is proving to be a trump card, with the facility poised to hit a production rate of 4,000 Model 3 per week in mid-2020. Tesla China is also poised to release two new versions of its locally-produced Model 3, the Long Range and Performance variants. 

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Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is also progressing. While no groundbreaking activities have been done on the site, Tesla was nonetheless able to complete its ground-leveling operations. Despite this, Tesla still aims to start Model Y production in Gigafactory Berlin in 2021. 

TSLA STOCK SO FAR

Investors proved bullish on the electric car maker on Wednesday, ending the day +4.08% and trading at $800.51 per share. Tesla shareholders have received the electric car maker’s results positively. As of writing, Tesla shares are trading 9.06% at $873.00 per share during after-hours trading. 

Tesla’s Q1 2020 Update Letter could be accessed below.

Q1 2020 Update by Simon Alvarez on Scribd

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Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla gets tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm on self-driving prowess

“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet,” BoA wrote.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla received a tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm Bank of America on Wednesday, as it reinitiated coverage on Tesla shares with a bullish stance that comes with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $460 price target.

In a new note that marks a sharp reversal from its neutral position earlier in 2025, the bank declared Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology the “leading consumer autonomy solution.”

Analysts highlighted Tesla’s camera-only architecture, known as Tesla Vision, as a strategic masterstroke. While technically more challenging than the multi-sensor setups favored by rivals, the vision-based approach is dramatically cheaper to produce and maintain.

This cost edge, combined with Tesla’s rapidly expanding real-world data engine, positions the company to scale robotaxis far more profitably than competitors, BofA argues in the new note:

“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet.”

The bank now attributes roughly 52% of Tesla’s total valuation to its Robotaxi ambitions. It also flagged meaningful upside from the Optimus humanoid robot program and the fast-growing energy storage business, suggesting the auto segment’s recent headwinds, including expired incentives, are being eclipsed by these higher-margin opportunities.

Tesla’s own data underscores exactly why Wall Street is waking up to FSD’s potential. According to Tesla’s official safety reporting page, the FSD Supervised fleet has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles driven.

Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles

That total ballooned from just 6 million miles in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and a staggering 4.25 billion in 2025 alone. In the first 50 days of 2026, owners added another 1 billion miles — averaging more than 20 million miles per day.

This avalanche of real-world, camera-captured footage, much of it on complex city streets, gives Tesla an unmatched training dataset. Every mile feeds its neural networks, accelerating improvement cycles that lidar-dependent rivals simply cannot match at scale.

Tesla owners themselves will tell you the suite gets better with every release, bringing new features and improvements to its self-driving project.

The $460 target implies roughly 15 percent upside from recent trading levels around $400. While regulatory and safety hurdles remain, BofA’s endorsement signals growing institutional conviction that Tesla’s data advantage is not hype; it’s a tangible moat already delivering billions of miles of proof.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX IPO could push Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion: Polymarket

The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.

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Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Recent projections have outlined how a potential $1.75 trillion SpaceX IPO could generate historic returns for early investors. The projections suggest the offering would not only become the largest IPO in history but could also result in unprecedented windfalls for some of the company’s key investors.

The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.

As noted in a Polymarket Money analysis, Elon Musk invested $100 million into SpaceX in 2002 and currently owns approximately 42% of the company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation following SpaceX’s potential $1.75 trillion IPO, that stake would be worth roughly $735 billion.

Such a figure would dramatically expand Musk’s net worth. When combined with his holdings in Tesla Inc. and other ventures, a public debut at that level could position him as the world’s first trillionaire, depending on market conditions at the time of listing.

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The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists Elon Musk with a net worth of $666 billion, though a notable portion of this is tied to his TSLA stock. Tesla currently holds a market cap of $1.51 trillion, and Elon Musk’s currently holds about 13% to 15% of the company’s outstanding common stock.

Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, invested $20 million in SpaceX in 2008. Polymarket Money estimates the firm owns between 1.5% and 3% of the private space company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, that range would translate to approximately $26.25 billion to $52.5 billion in value.

That return would represent one of the most significant venture capital outcomes in modern Silicon Valley history, with a growth of 131,150% to 262,400%.

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, invested $900 million into SpaceX in 2015 and is estimated to hold between 6% and 7% of the private space firm. At the projected IPO valuation, that stake could be worth between $105 billion and $122.5 billion. That’s a growth of 11,566% to 14,455%.

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Other major backers highlighted in the post include Fidelity Investments, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Bank of America, and Andreessen Horowitz, each potentially sitting on multibillion-dollar gains.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk hints Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily

“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet,” Musk said.

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Credit: Grok

Elon Musk recently hinted that he believes Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily if they continue to hold onto their shares, and he reiterated that in a new interview that the company released on its social accounts this week.

Musk is one of the most successful CEOs in the modern era and has mammothed competitors on the Forbes Net Worth List over the past year as his holdings in his various companies have continued to swell.

Tesla investors, especially those who have been holding shares for several years, have also felt substantial gains in their portfolios. Over the past five years, the stock is up over 78 percent. Since February 2019, nearly seven years ago to the day, the stock is up over 1,800 percent.

Musk said in the interview:

“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.”

It’s no secret Musk has been extremely bullish on his own companies, but Tesla in particular, because it is publicly traded.

However, the company has so many amazing projects that have an opportunity to revolutionize their respective industries. There is certainly a path to major growth on Wall Street for Tesla through its various future projects, including Optimus, Cybercab, Semi, and Unsupervised FSD.

  • Optimus (Tesla’s humanoid robot): Musk has discussed its potential for tasks like childcare, walking dogs, or assisting elderly parents, positioning it as a massive long-term driver of company value.
  • Cybercab (Tesla’s robotaxi/autonomous ride-hailing vehicle): a fully autonomous vehicle geared specifically for Tesla’s ride-sharing ambitions.
  • Semi (Tesla’s electric truck, with mentions of expansion, like in Europe): brings Tesla into the commercial logistics sector.
  • Unsupervised FSD (Full Self-Driving software achieving full autonomy without human supervision): turns every Tesla owner’s vehicle into a fully-autonomous vehicle upon release

These projects specifically are some of the highest-growth pillars Tesla has ever attempted to develop, especially in Musk’s eyes, as he has said Optimus will be the best-selling product of all-time.

Many analysts agree, but the bullish ones, like Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, are perhaps the one who believes Tesla has incredible potential on Wall Street, predicting a $2,600 price target for 2030, but this is not even including Optimus.

She told Bloomberg last March that she believes that the project will present a potential additive if Tesla can scale faster than anticipated.

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