Investor's Corner
Tesla is getting unnecessarily weighed down by the SEC’s claims against Elon Musk
Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped on Monday after the US Securities and Exchange Commission asked a judge to hold Elon Musk in contempt for reportedly violating a settlement that required him to get approval before releasing any social media posts or announcements that could be material to investors. Regardless of the judge’s decision, Elon Musk and the SEC’s run-ins with each other are adversely affecting investors and unnecessarily weighing down Tesla. This is something is best avoided, by the company and Elon Musk himself, in the future.
According to the SEC, Musk’s tweet on February 19, when he mentioned that Tesla will make “around 500K” vehicles in 2019, was a violation of his settlement with the agency last year. Musk later clarified his statement, explaining that he was talking about an annualized production rate of around 500k (roughly 10k cars per week) vehicles by 2019’s end, but that deliveries for the year are “still estimated to be about 400k.”
Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019
The SEC claimed in papers filed in a Manhattan court that Elon Musk “once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers, including members of the press, and made this inaccurate information available to anyone with internet access.” The SEC’s announcement adversely affected the company’s stock, sending TSLA plummeting 4% on Monday’s after-hours following the announcement. It did not take long before some of the company’s staunchest critics began to predict that Musk will be incarcerated.
Despite the company’s critics calling for Musk to be sent behind bars, Peter Haveles, a partner at Pepper Hamilton in New York whose practice specializes in commercial and regulatory disputes, noted in a statement to The Verge that another fine will likely be the result of the SEC’s claim against the Tesla CEO.
“Mr. Musk will try to argue that it’s a one-time thing, and the issue will be, is that really the case? Will the SEC come forward with evidence from Tesla that they are struggling to get Mr. Musk to comply with the process? It’s unlikely that Musk will face being barred from serving as a director or officer of a publicly traded company for the tweet,” he said, later adding that Elon Musk’s tweet doesn’t rise to the level of criminal contempt; and thus, the CEO does not have to worry about jail time.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that while the SEC might be a bit aggressive with its request to have the CEO held in contempt of court due to his February 19 tweet, Musk could have avoided the entire issue altogether if he had just been more careful. And it’s not like this is the first time such a thing happened either, as it was his Twitter activities that landed him in hot water last year due to his now infamous “funding secured” announcement.
It will likely be difficult for the SEC to prove that Elon Musk’s tweets were a violation of his settlement’s terms. For one, Musk’s February 19 tweet was made while markets were closed. Thus, it will be very challenging to gauge the “materiality” of the announcement. Musk also mentioned the same figures weeks before during the Q4 2019 earnings call, when he estimated that Tesla could produce “maybe in the order of 350,000 to 500,000 Model 3s” this year. Musk mentioned this in a later tweet, stating that the SEC seemed to have forgotten to read the transcript of Tesla’s Q4 earnings call.
SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript, which clearly states 350k to 500k. How embarrassing … 🤗
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2019
It is difficult to not see a certain bias emerging from the SEC against Musk’s Twitter activities, considering that the tweet in question did not really affect Tesla stock and the estimate was already public knowledge due to the fourth quarter earnings call. In a way, it almost seems like the SEC’s recent initiative against Musk is response of sorts against the CEO’s statements against the agency. Musk has mocked the agency on Twitter in the past, dubbing it as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission,” and in a 60 Minutes segment, he flat-out admitted that he does not respect the SEC. Ultimately, the SEC’s claim would have to rely on the premise of Elon Musk posting his Tesla-related tweet without the message being vetted first, as agreed upon in last year’s settlement.
Tesla is at a point in its history where the company could grow into one of the most potent forces in the auto industry. With Model 3 production stabilized, Gigafactory 3 under construction, and vehicles like the Model Y set to be revealed, tweets like Musk’s February 19 announcement are things that the company can do without. If led by a more careful, more calculating Elon Musk, Tesla’s inevitable rise to power will most definitely happen sooner than expected.
As of writing, Tesla shares are trading -3.52 at $288.25 per share on Tuesday’s pre-market.
Disclosure: The opinions presented in this article are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the stand of Teslarati. I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
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