Investor's Corner
Tesla maintains gains amid Jim Chanos’ renewed criticisms against TSLA
Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) continued to recover on Friday, despite noted short-seller Jim Chanos declaring the company’s vehicles as “poorly made.” Speaking recently in front of investors and businessmen, Chanos blasted Tesla for doing away with the auto industry’s established conventions, at one point even suggesting that that people probably buy the company’s electric cars simply because of Elon Musk.
“Musk is re-learning the hard lessons automakers in Detroit learned 100 years ago. It’s one thing to manufacture cars, but Detroit learned the hard way they didn’t want to be at the nexus. Decades ago, Detroit’s big car brands decided to let the dealers do that, and focus on manufacturing and updating models. Musk is now dealing with all of the things car makers have had to deal with…Tesla’s idea was to tear all that up and start from scratch, but sales and services are coming back in a hard way,” Chanos said, arguing that while Musk has created a “very sexy car” that is popular with many drivers, the vehicles are “turning out to be a poorly made car.”
When asked if he would view Tesla at a more positive light if Musk were to resign, Chanos stated that he doesn’t think the CEO can. “He’s the brand… it’s all about Elon Musk. I think a lot of people buy the car because he’s the brand,” the short-seller said. Chanos also scoffed at the idea of Tesla offering own insurance service, remarking “You have to be f-ing kidding me.”
While the noted short-seller has returned to air his criticisms against Tesla, a number of Wall St analysts are beginning to adopt a more positive stance on the electric car maker. Among these is Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter, who stated in a recent note on Friday that concerns about weakening demand for the Model 3, which have pushed the stock down about 40% since the start of the year, are “overdone.”
The analyst mentioned that TSLA stock had been overwhelmed by bearish sentiments since the company released its first-quarter delivery results, which were hurt by logistical bottlenecks. “In a nutshell, we think bears are using weak Q1 deliveries to support a ‘doomsday’ thesis where weak demand drives factory under-utilization, margin degradation, and even insolvency. But the underlying premise (weak demand) requires defending — and so far, convincing evidence has yet to emerge,” Potter wrote.
Potter also highlighted that the real opportunity for the Model 3 is likely bigger than what some clients actually understand, particularly as the vehicle is not only competing with luxury vehicles. “Our analysis suggests that 54% of Model 3 demand should come from consumers who would have chosen mass-market vehicles. This mirrors Tesla’s own trade-in data,” the analyst added.
The Piper Jaffray analyst currently has an “overweight” rating for TSLA stock, as well as an optimistic $396 price target on the company.
Tesla’s first quarter might have been challenging, but indications have emerged pointing to the company ending the second quarter in a positive note. A leaked email from Elon Musk, for one, had suggested that Tesla might be able to meet, or even exceed, the company’s record deliveries in Q4 2018, a time when over 90,000 vehicles were delivered to customers. The company is also rolling out a compelling leasing program for the Model 3, which will likely make the electric sedan even more attractive to potential customers.
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading +0.36% at $206.70 per share.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst realizes one big thing about the stock: deliveries are losing importance
Tesla analyst Dan Levy of Barclays realized one big thing about the stock moving into 2026: vehicle deliveries are losing importance.
As a new era of Tesla seems to be on the horizon, the concern about vehicle deliveries and annual growth seems to be fading, at least according to many investors.
Even CEO Elon Musk has implied at times that the automotive side, as a whole, will only make up a small percentage of Tesla’s total valuation, as Optimus and AI begin to shine with importance.
He said in April:
“The future of the company is fundamentally based on large-scale autonomous cars and large-scale and large volume, vast numbers of autonomous humanoid robots.”
Almost all of Tesla’s value long-term will be from AI & robots, both vehicle & humanoid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2023
Levy wrote in a note to investors that Tesla’s Q4 delivery figures “likely won’t matter for the stock.” Barclays said in the note that it expects deliveries to be “soft” for the quarter.
In years past, Tesla analysts, investors, and fans were focused on automotive growth.
Cars were truly the biggest thing the stock had to offer: Tesla was a growing automotive company with a lot of prowess in AI and software, but deliveries held the most impact, along with vehicle pricing. These types of things had huge impacts on the stock years ago.
In fact, several large swings occurred because of Tesla either beating or missing delivery estimates:
- January 3, 2022: +13.53%, record deliveries at the time
- January 3, 2023: -12.24%, missed deliveries
- July 2, 2024: +10.20%, beat delivery expectations
- October 3, 2022: -8.61%, sharp miss due to Shanghai factory shutdown
- July 2, 2020: +7.95%, topped low COVID-era expectations with sizeable beat on deliveries
It has become more apparent over the past few quarters that delivery estimates have significantly less focus from investors, who are instead looking for progress in AI, Optimus, Cybercab, and other projects.
These things are the future of the company, and although Tesla will always sell cars, the stock is more impacted by the software the vehicle is running, and not necessarily the vehicle itself.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Full Self-Driving statistic impresses Wall Street firm: ‘Very close to unsupervised’
The data shows there was a significant jump in miles traveled between interventions as Tesla transitioned drivers to v14.1 back in October. The FSD Community Tracker saw a jump from 441 miles to over 9,200 miles, the most significant improvement in four years.
Tesla Full Self-Driving performance and statistics continue to impress everyone, from retail investors to Wall Street firms. However, one analyst believes Tesla’s driving suite is “very close” to achieving unsupervised self-driving.
On Tuesday, Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter said that Tesla’s recent launch of Full Self-Driving version 14 increased the number of miles traveled between interventions by a drastic margin, based on data compiled by a Full Self-Driving Community Tracker.
🚨 Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating and $500 PT on Tesla $TSLA stock
Analyst Alexander Potter said FSD is near full autonomy and latest versions showed the largest improvement in disengagements, from 440 miles to 9,200 miles between critical interventions pic.twitter.com/u4WCLfZcA9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 9, 2025
The data shows there was a significant jump in miles traveled between interventions as Tesla transitioned drivers to v14.1 back in October. The FSD Community Tracker saw a jump from 441 miles to over 9,200 miles, the most significant improvement in four years.
Interestingly, there was a slight dip in the miles traveled between interventions with the release of v14.2. Piper Sandler said investor interest in FSD has increased.
Full Self-Driving has displayed several improvements with v14, including the introduction of Arrival Options that allow specific parking situations to be chosen by the driver prior to arriving at the destination. Owners can choose from Street Parking, Parking Garages, Parking Lots, Chargers, and Driveways.
Additionally, the overall improvements in performance from v13 have been evident through smoother operation, fewer mistakes during routine operation, and a more refined decision-making process.
Early versions of v14 exhibited stuttering and brake stabbing, but Tesla did a great job of confronting the issue and eliminating it altogether with the release of v14.2.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also recently stated that the current v14.2 FSD suite is also less restrictive with drivers looking at their phones, which has caused some controversy within the community.
Although we tested it and found there were fewer nudges by the driver monitoring system to push eyes back to the road, we still would not recommend it due to laws and regulations.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
With that being said, FSD is improving significantly with each larger rollout, and Musk believes the final piece of the puzzle will be unveiled with FSD v14.3, which could come later this year or early in 2026.
Piper Sandler reaffirmed its $500 price target on Tesla shares, as well as its ‘Overweight’ rating.
Ford cancels all-electric F-150 Lightning, announces $19.5 billion in charges
SpaceX shades airline for seeking contract with Amazon’s Starlink rival
