Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) fourth-quarter earnings call comes on the heels of yet another blockbuster quarter that saw the electric car maker posting $7.38 billion in revenue and an earnings per share of $2.14, beating the Street’s estimates.
As revealed in the company’s Q4 and Full Year 2019 Update Letter, Tesla is GAAP profitable once more and is likely on track towards even more stable financial ground. The company generated $1.1 billion of free cash flow for the year, propelled in part by the sustained, stable demand for the Tesla Model 3.
For today’s earnings call, Tesla executives are expected to address questions surrounding the company’s plans for the coming year, as well as the electric car maker’s upcoming projects such as Giga Berlin and the ongoing expansion of Giga Shanghai.
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q4 2019 earnings call. I will be updating this article in real-time, so please keep refreshing the page to view the latest updates on this story.
16:29 PT – Joseph Osha from JMP Securities inquired about Tesla’s acquisition of Maxwell technologies. Musk referred once more to the company’s upcoming Battery Day, where the company will discuss its plans with the company’s technologies, including its supercapacitors and dry electrode innovations, which Musk said will play an important part in Tesla’s future plans.
16:26 PT – While answering an inquiry from Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research, Musk remarked that Tesla has gone way deep in battery technology. “Wow, we really know a lot about batteries,” he said.
16:25 PT – Dan Levy of Credit Suisse reiterates the idea that Tesla should raise capital now to acquire more companies. Elon Musk jokingly asked the analyst which company should Tesla acquire now. Levy seemed flustered.
To be fair, Musk has a point here, and Kirkhorn discussed this point too. There’s not a lot of sense in raising money right now since Tesla is already spending its funds as much as it can.
16:20 PT – Elon Musk and Kirkhorn noted that at this point, Tesla’s priority is all about lowering its costs and increasing its margins. This will apply to the Model 3 and Model Y ramp, with the latter likely enjoying a lot of demand. The Tesla executives also mentioned that Tesla is now testing the waters when it comes to products that are low cost and high margin, which are represented by paid software upgrades such as the Model 3’s Acceleration Boost Upgrade.
16:15 PT – Gene Munster of Loup Ventures takes the floor and asks a question about the Cybertruck, particularly its expected demand and costs for production. Elon Musk declined to release specific figures, though he noted that demand is healthy for the all-electric truck. He also stated that the focus with the Cybertruck is all about battery production. This makes sense, especially since the Cybertruck, as well as vehicles like the Semi, require a lot of batteries. This is a challenging endeavor, and it will be discussed in Tesla’s upcoming Battery Day.
Elon did state that Battery Day could probably happen after this quarter.
16:05 PT – Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley issues his inquiry, asks if Teslas will be compatible with Starlink. Musk stated that this is something that can happen in the future, explaining that Starlink is a high-bandwith system. It’s a lot of bandwith for a car, but it can be done, though the antenna to receive Starlink signals are about the size of a pizza box. Musk then added that he doesn’t really think about it very much.
16:00 PT – Addressing retail investors’ questions, Kirkhorn noted that the vehicles produced in Giga Shanghai will be just as, if not more profitable than vehicles produced in the United States. Musk added that it’s mostly a matter of costs. There’s just far more optimizations that can be done if a factory could produce vehicles for that specific region.
When asked if it is wise to raise money now, Musk stated that Tesla at this point is actually spending what it can right now. “We’re spending money efficiently, and we’re not artificially limiting our progress. In line with that, it does not make sense to raise money at this level,” Musk said. Kirkhorn believes this strategy, explaining that Tesla has gotten smarter about how the company is when it comes to spending money.
But what’s the most encouraging part here is that both Musk and Kirkhorn promised that there will be no slowdown when it comes to Tesla’s growth.
15:55 PT – Tesla starts taking questions from retail investors. First up, solar installations. Musk stated that Tesla is working with firms to take on the roofing market for the Solarglass Roof. In the future, the CEO stated that homeowners would simply have the choice of having a roof that generates power, or a roof that’s simply a roof.
Another question from retail shareholders involved the Tesla Network, and if it can be deployed even before FSD is fully approved. Elon Musk stated that such an idea makes sense. Kirkhorn added that Tesla intends to allow customers to have the choice to enter their vehicle to a ride-sharing network.
When it comes to Tesla Insurance and its existing coverage, Kirkhorn stated that the priority right now is to expand the service. “There’s a significant amount of innovation in this space,” the CTO said. Musk also stated that there will be a discount in Tesla Insurance if owners use Autopilot. Higher use of Autopilot would mean lower insurance costs.
Musk also noted that Tesla’s feature complete FSD will likely happen within the next few months. He added that he was very optimistic about its target timeframe, which was initially set for the end of 2019.
15:45 PT – Kirkhorn sets expectations for Q1, describing that the company’s profitability may be impacted due to unexpected headwinds in China such as the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Ongoing projects such as Giga Berlin and Giga Shanghai would also play a part.
15:43 PT – CTO Zach Kirkhorn stated that 2019 was a key year for Tesla. The company transitioned from meeting a reservation backlog to generating more demand for the Model 3. Capacity-wise, Tesla learned a lot in the Model 3 ramp in Fremont and Giga Nevada. These were aggregated and applied to facilities such as Giga Shanghai.
Kirkhorn also mentioned something notable — Tesla is starting to earn from its software services. This is huge, as the company could generate quite a lot of profit from its software-based services. The Acceleration Boost alone is notable.
The CTO added that the Model Y’s margins will likely be better than the Model 3. This bodes very well for the electric car maker. The MIC Model 3 is also seeing healthy demand in China.
15:38 PT – Elon further notes the company’s rationale with the Cybertruck, and how Tesla opted to stay out of the box with the vehicle’s design. The CEO added that the brutalist vehicle actually has quite a lot of demand.
“The demand has been incredible. I think we can make for as many as we can sell for many years. It’s going to be pretty nuts,” he said, adding that the product is better than what many people realize. This totally makes me want a Cybertruck even more.
“(We’re) super fired up where Tesla will be in the next ten years,” Musk said.
15:33 PT – Martin Viecha opens the call and introduces the participants of the call. Elon Musk takes over and mentions Tesla’s strong demand. He focuses on Tesla having the highest demand EVs in the world with zero advertising spend. Musk also noted that Fremont is already at a production pace comparable to NUMMI’s peak before. And this is before the Model Y.
Elon specifically mentions Giga Shanghai and congratulates the China team. “I think it’s going to be an incredible asset for the company. There’s a lot of good progress there,” he said.
Musk also revealed that Model Y initial production has begun. The crossover is efficient like a beast — 315 miles per charge. This is more than what the company initially stated during its unveiling last year.
15:30 PT – And it’s time for the earnings call to begin. But so far, it seems like the call will be starting a bit later than expected. Elon Time V2? Let’s see.
15:20 PT – Hello and good day, everyone, and welcome to yet another Live Blog coverage of Tesla’s earnings report. With the electric car maker posting yet another profitable quarter. I’m no prophet, but there’s a good chance that 2020 will be far kinder to TSLA shareholders than in 2019.
Other Tesla Q4 and Full Year 2019 Highlights
Elon Musk
California snubs Tesla in its newly passed EV incentive that favors Rivian and Lucid
California passed a $135 million EV incentive that rewards Rivian and Lucid while sidelining Tesla
California just drew a line in the EV incentive sand to put Tesla on the wrong side of it. The state recently passed a $135 million program offering first-time electric vehicle buyers a direct incentive with no application required, but the rules were written in a way that leaves Tesla at a structural disadvantage compared to Rivian and Lucid.
The program caps eligible vehicles at $50,000 for new EVs and $25,000 for used ones. That pricing threshold rules out a significant portion of Tesla’s lineup, though some lower-priced Model 3 and Model Y configurations would still qualify. California-based automakers are exempt from the price cap entirely, regardless of what their vehicles cost. Rivian, headquartered in Irvine, and Lucid, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, both benefit from that exemption. Rivian’s R2 starts at roughly $45,000 but has versions above the cap. Lucid’s Air and Gravity start at $70,990 and $79,990 respectively, well above any threshold a non-California company would face.
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
Tesla built its reputation and a significant portion of its early market share in California, where EV adoption has consistently led the nation. The company operates its original factory in Fremont, California, and the state was home to Tesla’s headquarters for most of its existence. That changed in 2021 when Tesla moved its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas. Since then, the relationship between the company and California Governor Gavin Newsom has been openly adversarial, with Musk and Newsom trading public criticism on multiple occasions.
California’s EV incentive landscape has shifted repeatedly in recent years, and Tesla has previously lost eligibility for state-level programs as its vehicles exceeded income-adjusted price thresholds. The federal $7,500 EV tax credit, which Tesla models have qualified for and lost depending on policy cycles, is no longer available after it expired without renewal, making state-level programs more meaningful to buyers than they have been in years.
The practical impact for buyers is more nuanced than the headline suggests. California residents purchasing a Tesla under $50,000 for the first time can still access the incentive. But the exemption written for California-based manufacturers is a structural advantage that rewards where a company plants its headquarters flag rather than where it builds its products, and Tesla moved that flag to Texas.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s newest logo confirms everything about what it’s become
SpaceX officially absorbed xAI under the SpaceXAI brand, completing the largest private merger in history.
SpaceX made its corporate transformation official in May 2026 when Elon Musk posted on X that xAI would cease to exist as a standalone company. “xAI will be dissolved as a separate company, so it will just be SpaceXAI, the AI products from SpaceX,” he wrote.
A new SpaceXAI logo was announced today, visually embedding the xAI letters inside the SpaceX identity, which can be seen as a deliberate design choice that signals the merger is not a partnership but a full absorption and XAi a core function of the same company. The same way Starlink is not a separate brand but a SpaceX product. The announcement closed the loop on a process that began February 2, 2026, when SpaceX acquired xAI in the largest private merger in history, valued at $1.25 trillion. SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.
We are now @SpaceXAI. pic.twitter.com/ema66xDWC9
— SpaceXAI (@SpaceXAI) July 6, 2026
The reason SpaceX bought xAI was stated plainly by Musk at the time of the deal: to build orbital data centers. SpaceX had simultaneously filed with the FCC to launch up to one million satellites designed to function as AI compute nodes in low Earth orbit, escaping what Musk described as the energy constraints limiting AI development on Earth.
xAI provided the AI software stack, with Grok, the X platform, and the Colossus supercomputer infrastructure in Memphis with over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs, while SpaceX provided the rockets, Starlink, and the capital base to fund it. The two companies needed each other. xAI was burning $2.5 billion in losses on $250 million in revenue. SpaceX was generating an estimated $8 billion in profit on $15 billion in revenue and needed an AI narrative to command the valuation it was targeting for its IPO.
What SpaceX has done, regardless of how the orbital AI vision ultimately plays out, is walk into a public market as something no company has been before: a rocket manufacturer, satellite internet provider, AI software company, social media platform, and supercomputer operator under one ticker. Whether that combination is worth $2 trillion depends entirely on which of those businesses you believe in most.
Investor's Corner
Tesla challenges startups to score a gig inside its most advanced European factory
Tesla is challenging startups to bring their best battery tech directly to Gigafactory Berlin.
Tesla has issued an open challenge to startups across Europe, inviting them to bring their best battery technology directly to the floor of Gigafactory Berlin. The program, called the JUNI x Tesla Battery Cell Giga Challenge, opened applications this month with a deadline of July 24, 2026, and is targeting startups with solutions that can make battery cell manufacturing faster, cheaper, safer, and more scalable at an industrial level.
The timing of the challenge is directly tied to Tesla’s most aggressive European battery investment yet. On May 12, 2026, Giga Berlin plant manager André Thierig announced a $250 million investment to scale the factory’s annual 4680 cell production capacity from 8 GWh to 18 GWh, more than doubling the previous target set just months earlier in December 2025. Thierig confirmed the expansion on X, saying the investment “will enable 18 GWh of annual 4680 cell production and create more than 1,500 new jobs.” Combined with a previously announced battery investment at the Grunheide site now approaches $1.2 billion.
Today, we announced a $ 250m investment for our Giga Berlin Cell factory. This will enable 18GWh of annual 4680 cell production and create more than 1500 new jobs. Good news during challenging times for the German industry. pic.twitter.com/ou4SWMfWh9
— André Thierig (@AndrThie) May 12, 2026
The challenge is looking specifically for startups with proven solutions across five categories: materials, equipment, operations, automation, and artificial intelligence. Applications are screened directly by Tesla’s cell manufacturing team in Grunheide, and the strongest submissions move through technical discussions, a pitch day in front of Tesla stakeholders, and potentially a paid pilot project with the cell team. Tesla is not looking for ideas at concept stage. The program requires applicants to demonstrate working prototypes, test data, or prior pilots before being considered.
The historical context matters here. Elon Musk first announced plans for what he called the world’s largest battery cell production facility alongside the Giga Berlin car factory back in 2020, targeting up to 250 GWh of annual capacity. Those plans were shelved in 2022 when Tesla shifted its battery investment focus to the United States to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act incentives. The revival of cell production at Giga Berlin, now backed by over $1 billion in committed capital, represents a return to an ambition that was set aside for three years. As Teslarati has reported, the 4680 format is central to Tesla’s long-term cost reduction strategy across vehicles, energy storage, including the Tesla Semi and Cybercab.
By opening the challenge to outside startups, Tesla is acknowledging that reaching 18 GWh at Grunheide will require technology it does not currently have in-house, and it is willing to pay for the right solutions. For a startup in the battery supply chain, a paid pilot with Tesla’s European cell team is as close to a direct commercial path as the industry offers.
Tesla FSD is about to know your specific house and neighborhood better than any map
The secret behind Tesla’s Cybercab Gold goes well beyond just the color
