Investor's Corner
LIVE BLOG: Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and Full Year 2021 earnings call summary
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call comes on the heels of a breakthrough quarter that saw the company grow its revenue by 65% YoY in Q4 to $17.7 billion while improving its operating income to $2.6 billion. As noted by the company in its Q4 and FY 2021 Update Letter, it is now no longer a question if electric vehicles are a viable and profitable business.
Despite various projects such as the active buildout of Giga Berlin and Gigafactory Texas, as well as the additional expansions of Giga Shanghai and the Fremont Factory, Tesla still ended the fourth quarter with a strong war chest, with quarter-end cash and cash equivalents increasing sequentially by $1.5 billion to $17.6 billion in Q4 2021.
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2021 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. The first entry starts at the bottom of the page.
15:32 – And that ends the Q4 and FY 2021 earnings call! That was an interesting ending to it, with Elon Musk discussing the similarities of the chip shortage to the toilet paper panic in the United States due to Covid. Classic Elon Musk.
That said, thanks so much for staying with us for yet another live blog. Here’s to the next! Cheers!
15:28 – New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu asks about Tesla’s 4680 ramp, and how its form factor can be adopted by suppliers as well. Is it something that will be used outside Tesla?
Zachary Kirkhorn confirms that yes, Tesla has engaged a number of its suppliers on the 4680 form factor. “We’re engaged because we think it’s a great form factor,” he said.
That said, the 4680 form factor is not “the ultimate form factor.” Iron cells, for example, are not optimized for the 4680 design.
15:24 – Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi asks about FSD’s take rate. Elon notes that with FSD, “you do not want to look into the rearview mirror” since the technology is such a profound step change. And when that happens, the value of such a system will be very big in number.
With regards to Tesla’s product roadmap, Sacconaghi asked if Tesla can hit about 3 million vehicles per year by 2024 by just selling a couple of high volume cars and vehicles like the Cybertruck. Elon rounds back to FSD and the value it provides. “If the cost of our cars don’t change at all, we’ll still sell as much as we make,” he said.
15:18 – Ben Kallo from Baird asks about Tesla’s R&D organization efforts. Tesla executives noted that while the company does not have “incubators,” teams simply work on things that go into products. Elon and the other executives then highlighted the value of working on real projects, which are taken from innumerable ideas.
15:15 – Analyst questions begin. First up is Canaccord analyst Jed Dorsheimer, who asked about Tesla’s Energy Business and Energy Products. Elon notes that Tesla will using iron-based cells for its energy storage products. “All stationary storage will storage would shift to an iron-based or non-nickel-based system,” he said, adding that manganese is also a “wild card” for batteries.
Musk admits that Tesla Energy was shortchanged last year in favor of the company’s vehicle business. But this was done because of chips, not cells. Long term, Tesla is still aiming for a TWh/year energy business.
When asked if 2022 will be a year where Tesla Energy will recover, Musk noted that the chip shortage might alleviate this year. But there will be growth this year. Definitely. “If we respond to demand, (Tesla Energy) will grow by two or three hundred percent,” Musk said.
15:10 – On Level 4 abilities and if Dojo is required. Elon notes that Dojo is not needed to reach FSD. He also explains that ultimately, the human driver is not a very high standard at all. “Several profound improvements coming to the FSD stack in the next few months,” Musk said.
15:07 – On margin improvements. The Model Y is key since it’s just so much more profitable than the Model 3. Localization in Giga Shanghai is also something notable since localization is a huge help for margins. Of course, price increases in certain markets help on margin improvements as well.
Zach did note that Tesla’s software business should be the main focus, as the margins there are very notable. This will be very true when FSD and Robotaxis finally happen.
15:04 – A question about the constraint to Cybertruck production was asked. Elon notes that it’s probably not gonna be batteries that would be the Cybertruck’s constraint. There are lots of new technologies in it that will take some time to work through. Its price also has to be reasonable. The goal is currently to build 250,000 Cybertrucks per year.
15:01 – A question about each factory’s max output was asked. Elon notes that it’s hard to answer such a question, since it’s easy to expand the maximum capacity of a factory. “It’s possible to increase capacity,” Elon noted, adding that Tesla will be increasing its factories’ capacity across the board.
15:00 – A question about the first use of the Tesla Bot has been asked. “If we can’t find a use for it, we can’t expect others to find a use for it. The first use of Optimus will be at Tesla, like moving parts around the factory,” Musk said. He also joked that the name “Optimus sub-prime” is sticking to the project.
As for Tesla Insurance, it is currently available in five states. Both Elon and Zach agree that insurance with informatics are useful, since if people know how they’re driving, they tend to drive safer. Take rates have been quite strong as well. “Our internal goal here by the end of the year is that 80% of Tesla customers could choose Tesla insurance by the end of the year,” Kirkhorn said.
14:56 – A question about a potential perpetual and term FSD licenses was asked. Elon notes that such a system seems complicated. Tesla would rather focus on ensuring that it could offer FSD at a reasonable price.
As for Dojo, yes, it is on track for “doing something useful” summer of this year. When the FSD development team would rather use Dojo than their current systems, then that’s the time that the supercomputer would start being utilized. “Dojo is not needed for Full Self-Driving. It’s a cost optimization for training vast amounts of data,” Musk explained, later noting that “If Dojo is competitive, it is the kind of thing we might offer to other companies.”
14:52 – A question about Tesla’s potential line of home HVAC systems was asked. Elon and the other Tesla executives seem very positive about the idea. It’s not gonna stop at home HVAC systems, either, with the “next logical step” being water heating. “I think it would be quite a game-changer down the road, but we’ve got a lot of fish frying,” Elon said.
14:50 – Investor questions are starting. First is about the $25,000 car. “We’re not currently working on the $25k car. We have enough on our plate right now. Too much, frankly,” Musk said. The CEO also noted that the question is wrong, since “the thing that really matters is when the car is autonomous, which causes cost of transport to drop by 4-5x.”
14:48 – Zach Kirkhorn takes the stage. He highlights that regulatory credits contributed less to Tesla’s finances this quarter, and it will continue to be reduced. He also notes that supply chain constraints impacted Tesla’s excess expenses, just like Elon Musk’s CEO Performance Award. He congratulates the Tesla team for a “terrific” 2021, and he notes that he is looking forward to another amazing year. Both Elon and Zach also thank Tesla’s suppliers for their help.
14:43 – In terms of priority, Musk believes that the Optimus humanoid robot is the most important product from Tesla. “This, I think, will be the most significant [product] over time,” Musk said, adding that “I’m not sure what an economy even means” if there is no longer such a thing as labor shortage.
The in-house 4680 battery cell program was also discussed. Structural packs are being assembled every day, and they are being built into vehicles that are produced in Texas every day. First vehicles with 4680 structural packs should start deliveries in the near future, perhaps by the end of the quarter.
14:40 – After discussing the value of FSD, Elon starts discussing Tesla’s product roadmap. Musk says that he’s not gonna cover all of them since some of these products deserve a launch of their own. Pretty interesting.
The fundamental focus of Tesla this year is scaling output, so both last year and this year, if we were to introduce this year, our total vehicle output will decrease. “If we were to introduce new vehicles our total vehicle output would decrease,” he said. “We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year,” he noted, though he stated that there will be lots of engineering for those vehicles like the Cybertruck, Roadster, and products like Optimus.
14:36 – With this in mind, Elon notes that Tesla’s focus now will be the future. In short, Giga Berlin and Giga Texas. “We’ve been making quite a few cars in Austin and Berlin,” he said lightly, referencing the constant drone flyovers on both sites.
While Tesla is not poised to announce a new Gigafactory site this year, Musk did state that Tesla will be looking at new Gigafactory locations towards the end of the year. Oh, and Giga Texas will be building with 4680 cells and structural packs and will begin deliveries once certification is complete.
14:34 – Martin Viecha takes the stage. Elon is here, and so are Zach Kirkhorn and other Tesla executives. Here’s Elon’s opening remarks. He states that 2021 was a breakthrough year for Tesla, with growth volume increasing by 90%. Tesla’s highest operating margins were recorded in the year as well. And as a sweet note, there’s now accumulated profitability since the start of the company went positive after Q4 2021.
14:32 – Okay, and we’re starting! It begins.
14:28 – And here we go. Music’s on so now it’s just a matter of waiting. Will this start in Elon Time?
14:20 – While the Q4 and FY 2021 Update Letter was exciting, we gotta be honest here. This earnings call is extra compelling because Elon Musk previously announced he would be providing an updated product roadmap today. The Cybertruck’s been spotted all around Giga Texas, and a fleet of Tesla Semis was featured in the Update Letter. Will these two projects get some legitimate announcements today? One can hope.
14:15 – Greetings, and welcome once more to our Live Blog! I think everyone had a good feeling that Q4 2021 would be Tesla’s best quarter yet, but I still find it pretty hard to wrap my head around the fact that this company that was teetering so close to the edge just a few years ago is such a strong and consistent business now. Tesla said it right in its Q4 and FY 2021 Update Letter: At this point, there’s no more argument about EVs and their viability.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Elon Musk
Tesla eyes supply partners for Optimus mass production
Tesla certified three Chinese suppliers for Optimus mass production, signaling its robot timeline is accelerating.
Tesla’s robotics team traveled to Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province, on September 16 and spent the following day auditing component suppliers for Optimus, according to a Bloomberg report cited by RobotAIGeek. The visit moved three manufacturers from provisional status to certified mass production partners: Tuopu Group, which handles actuators and chassis components, Ningbo Joyson Electronic, a sensor supplier, and Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls, which builds thermal management systems. All three already supply parts to Tesla’s electric vehicles, and the audit reportedly came with fresh orders that supply chain reports put at an initial batch of roughly 5,000 units.
Tuopu, Joyson, and Sanhua built their manufacturing base serving the automotive industry, where tolerances and volume requirements are already close to what a mass produced humanoid robot demands. Sanhua in particular has history here. Teslarati reported last October that the company had received a roughly $685 million order for linear actuators tied to Optimus, a volume industry watchers estimated could cover around 180,000 robots once production ramped.
Supply chain reports tied to this week’s audit put Tesla’s near term production goal at about 1,000 Optimus units a week by late September, rising to 2,000 to 2,500 units a week by the end of the year. That pace would put real weight behind the timeline Tesla has been building toward since May, when it wound down Model S and Model X production at Fremont to convert that floor space into a dedicated Optimus line targeting one million units annually. JPMorgan analysts who toured the factory in August confirmed the conversion took roughly four months, a pace Musk has called unprecedented for a facility that size.
New drone video shows Tesla’s Optimus Factory reaching a turning point
Fremont is only the first phase. A second, larger Optimus plant is rising at Gigafactory Texas, where drone footage shared by Joe Tegtmeyer last week showed the structural steel nearing completion on the north end of the building. Tesla has said that facility is meant to eventually support production of up to 10 million units a year, though volume output there is not expected before 2027.
Commercial sales of Optimus are still targeted for the second half of 2027, but production is expected to start well before then. JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta has said Tesla’s “Optimus Academy” program, which uses early units to collect real world training data inside Tesla’s own facilities, is expected to be running later this year. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ian Ma described the Ningbo audits as “a positive commercialization signal for China’s humanoid supply chain,” noting that sentiment could improve further if the visit leads to confirmed supplier nominations and larger orders. The Solactive China Humanoid Robotics Index rose about 1.4% on the news, though it remains down roughly 30% for the year.
Investor's Corner
New drone video shows Tesla’s Optimus Factory reaching a turning point
New drone footage shows Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory steel frame nearing completion at Giga Texas.
Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory at Gigafactory Texas is closing in on a finished steel frame, according to drone footage posted Thursday afternoon by longtime site observer Joe Tegtmeyer. In the video, Tegtmeyer said structural steel assembly is now about five column grids away from reaching the building’s north perimeter beam, putting the primary skeleton in its final stretch roughly six months after Tesla broke ground on the North Campus site in late March.
The Giga Texas Optimus Factory latest update … construction keeps moving fast!
Steel assembly is now only about 5 column grids from the north perimeter beam. Concrete is going in on the three upper floors, rebar is still being laid for more pours, and footing / grade-beam work… pic.twitter.com/qvFPvwnYzW
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) September 17, 2026
Tegtmeyer’s footage shows concrete already going in on three upper floors while crews continue laying rebar and pouring grade beam footings at ground level. That kind of parallel work, steel rising at one end of the site while concrete sets at the other, is a scheduling approach Tesla used at the original Giga Texas building and appears to be repeating here to save time before the plant’s targeted 2027 production start.
Teslarati has tracked the building’s progress since Tesla confirmed construction was officially underway in May, when the first steel structure went up on what was then bare, reclaimed land. The facility is part of a more than 5.2 million square foot expansion of Giga Texas’s North Campus that Tesla has said will eventually run nearly the length of the existing vehicle factory, over 4,000 feet, while sitting somewhat narrower. Musk has pegged the long term output target at 10 million Optimus units a year once the line is running at full capacity, a volume that would dwarf the one million unit pilot line Tesla is standing up separately at its Fremont, California factory.
Tesla Giga Texas to feature massive Optimus V4 production line
The Texas facility sits alongside another major buildout on the same campus. Terafab, the joint Tesla and SpaceX chip fabrication plant that will eventually supply the silicon running Optimus units in the field. Housing robot assembly and chip production on the same grounds is a deliberate supply chain decision, cutting down on the shipping and lead time that would otherwise sit between the two.
Tesla has not given an updated timeline beyond its previously stated goal of bringing high volume Optimus production online at the site in the summer of 2027. Fremont’s smaller pilot line began mass producing the current Gen 3 robot in January, with that plant expected to build tens of thousands of units this year primarily to generate the real world data Tesla needs to refine the robot’s software before Giga Texas ramps up. Six months of visible construction progress, tracked almost entirely through Tegtmeyer’s recurring drone flights, gives the clearest outside look yet at how seriously Tesla is treating that 2027 deadline.
Investor's Corner
Tesla and SpaceX take “Terafab” Trademark fight to Federal Court
Tesla and SpaceX sue a small Illinois firm after cease and desist letters over Terafab.
Tesla and SpaceX are asking a federal judge to rule that their planned Terafab chip factory does not infringe a small Illinois company’s trademark, a request that arrives only after months of quiet negotiation broke down this summer.
The dispute traces to May 18, when Tesla filed three U.S. trademark applications for “Terafab” and “Tesla Terafab,” covering semiconductor chips and related chip making services. TERA-print LLC, a nanotechnology company that has held a federal trademark for “Tera-Fab” since 2021, responded five days later with a cease and desist letter. According to the lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, TERA-print argued that Tesla and SpaceX’s use of “Terafab” would confuse consumers familiar with its own trademark, which covers a desktop photolithography printer sold to researchers for sensor and bioengineering work.
What stands out in the filing is the timing of TERA-print’s own paperwork. One day before sending that cease and desist letter, on May 22, TERA-print applied to expand its existing registration to cover semiconductor materials, silicon chips, nanoelectronic devices and AI design services, categories it had not previously claimed. Tesla and SpaceX call that filing opportunistic in their complaint, noting it arrived two months after Tesla’s public Terafab announcement and just days after Tesla’s own trademark applications went in.
Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry
By June 10, TERA-print was threatening to sue for federal trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition, the complaint states. Rather than wait to be sued, Tesla, SpaceX and SpaceXAI met with TERA-print six separate times between June and August trying to resolve the dispute directly. Those talks collapsed, and the companies filed for declaratory judgment this week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, asking a judge to find that “Terafab” does not infringe TERA-print’s mark before TERA-print can file a claim of its own.
TERA-print isn’t backing down. The company told PCMag it discussed a settlement with Tesla as recently as September 2 and feels misled by what it called Tesla’s professed interest in settling. Its CTO, Andrey Ivankin, said TERA-print holds a Defense Department contract to fabricate semiconductors and partially owns Mattiq Inc., an AI company built on TERA-print’s products, and that the company will vigorously defend its rights.
Tesla and SpaceX argue the overlap is superficial. Terafab is planned as a $16.8 billion complex spanning roughly 100 million square feet at the Grimes County site SpaceX confirmed last month, built to produce chips for Optimus robots, Tesla’s AI computing needs and SpaceX’s orbital data center ambitions, a scale and purpose the companies say no reasonable consumer would confuse with a tabletop lab printer. TERA-print’s product line has stayed focused on lithography tools for biological and sensor research since it registered its mark in 2021.
The trademark fight is the second legal dispute tied to the Terafab project in the past week, following a separate SpaceX suit aimed at keeping company records about the facility out of public view, as KBTX reported. Whether construction proceeds under the Terafab name now depends on a federal judge in Austin.
Elon Musk drops a surprise update on Boring Company’s next big dig
Tesla eyes supply partners for Optimus mass production
