Investor's Corner
The finer points of Tesla’s (TSLA) S&P 500 Inclusion
This week, it was announced that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) would join the S&P 500 Index on December 21st. The news shot the stock up nearly $100 in just two days, with most of the surge coming directly after the Tuesday announcement. While it is impressive enough that Tesla is finally being included in the S&P, some finer points aren’t being discussed, like Tesla’s young age compared to other companies in the index and its massive size going into the inclusion date.
Tesla’s 2020 performance on Wall Street has been more than impressive, and it was only a matter of time before larger, more prestigious investment indexes would look to acquire the electric car company. After soaring from $86 to over $500 throughout the year, Tesla broke yet another record this week after beating its all-time high price per share on Thursday.
Tesla could be the 6th most valuable company in the Index
With the surge in stock price comes an extreme growth in terms of company market cap, and the substantial increase in price per share has contributed significantly to Tesla’s valuation. If Tesla were to be added to the S&P today, it would be the sixth-largest company in the Index, in front of Berkshire Hathaway and behind Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.
The only companies that would be considered more valuable than Tesla would be Alphabet Inc. Class A Shares, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, all of which are the leaders in their respective industries. Although Apple and Microsoft could be considered a 1-2 punch in the tech world, the other companies are all surely at the head of the pack in their respective sectors.
Tesla will be one of the youngest companies in the Index
With Tesla being founded in 2003, it will be 17 years old when it joins the S&P 500 Index in December. That makes the company’s addition even more significant because its impact in such a short span of time is evident. While many of us recognize Tesla as the EV tech leader, the company could be considered the leader in the automotive sector altogether. This is simply incredible when you consider that Tesla has only had cars on the road since 2008 and has only been a mass-market carmaker since 2017 when the Model 3 was introduced.
However, Tesla has a tremendous influence on other car companies. Legacy automakers are fighting to stay relevant and admitting that they must make a transition to electrification. With Tesla leading that charge, new tricks are being taught to old dogs. It is just a matter of whether the old dogs choose to continue learning “new tricks.” If they don’t, they will slowly fade away as EVs become more popular on the road.
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Tesla is one of the only car companies in the Index
Tesla will join GM and Ford, two of the biggest names in the automotive sector, in the Index. The S&P 500 inclusion requirements are lofty, like an $8.2B market cap, have at least 10% of its shares outstanding, have its most recent quarter be profitable, and have a consecutive string of at least four profitable quarters.
2020 has not been the most forgiving year for many companies, and automotive manufacturers are no exception. Demand for new vehicles has effectively fallen off the table because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has caused many once-successful car companies to taste the losses of momentum. Companies that make affordable, petrol-powered sedans also are experiencing dropoffs in demand because people cannot afford new vehicles.
Because of this, large car companies that are publicly listed on NASDAQ are missing out on their opportunities to string together consecutive quarters and provide profitable margins to their investors. But Tesla isn’t having this issue because their cars are more than just vehicles. They are software devices. They are new ways to get from Point A to Point B. And, with many people worried about climate issues, electric cars are the only acceptable way to travel.
Tesla is joining the S&P during a year where growth was virtually impossible
To grow on the past points made, this year was supposed to be dramatically difficult for almost every company on the planet that wouldn’t increase work efficiency in a pandemic. Early winners were companies like Zoom, who created communication possibilities while not being near other people. Nobody would have thought that a company selling $35,000+ cars would see this much growth, but it has.
Tesla’s company mission attacks more than one issue in today’s world. Many investors and firms alike forget this fact: Tesla isn’t just a car company. They’re making solar panels, big batteries, and cars. Not to mention, their energy products are suitable for both commercial and residential use, making them desirable for a large market.
If we all could go back to the beginning of the pandemic, we would bet that car companies wouldn’t do well this year. They didn’t. But Tesla did, and it is because their identity as a true tech company has helped surge them past the label of “automaker” or “sustainable energy company.” Tesla is bigger than that, and when investors realize it, their portfolios will benefit.
I use this newsletter to share my thoughts on what is going on in the Tesla world. If you want to talk to me directly, you can email me or reach me on Twitter. I don’t bite, be sure to reach out!
Update: Revisions made to third subsection at 9:45 EST.
Investor's Corner
LIVE BLOG: Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) earnings call follows the release of the company’s Q4 and full-year 2025 update letter.
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) earnings call follows the release of the company’s Q4 and full-year 2025 update letter, which was published on Tesla’s Investor Relations website after markets closed on January 28, 2025.
The results cap a quarter in which Tesla produced more than 434,000 vehicles, delivered over 418,000 vehicles, and deployed 14.2 GWh of energy storage products. For the full year, Tesla produced 1.65 million vehicles and delivered 1.63 million, while total energy storage deployments reached 46.7 GWh.
Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 Results
According to Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 Update Letter, the company posted GAAP earnings per share of $0.24 and non-GAAP EPS of $0.50 in the fourth quarter. Total revenue for Q4 came in at $24.901 billion, while GAAP net income was reported at $840 million.
For full-year 2025, Tesla reported GAAP EPS of $1.08 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.66 per share. Total revenue reached $94.83 billion, including $69.53 billion from automotive operations and $12.78 billion from the company’s energy generation and storage business. GAAP net income for the year totaled $3.79 billion.
Earnings call updates
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 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.
16:25 CT – Good day to everyone, and welcome to another Tesla earnings call live blog. There’s a lot to unpack from Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 update letter, so I’m pretty sure this earnings call will be quite interesting.
16:30 CT – The Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call officially starts. IR exec Travis Axelrod opens the call. Elon and other executives are present.
16:30 CT – Elon makes his opening statement and explains why Tesla changed its mission to “Amazing Abundance.” “With the continued growth of AI and robotics, I think we’re headed towards a future of universal high income,” Musk said, adding that along the way, Tesla will still be improving its products while keeping the environment safe and healthy.
16:34 CT – Elon noted that the first steps for this future are happening this year, thanks to Tesla’s autonomy and robotics programs, which will be launching and ramping this year. He also highlighted that Tesla will be making major investments this year, though the company will be very strategic when it comes to its funding. “I think it makes a ton of strategic sense,” Musk said.
16:36 CT – Elon also announces the end of the Model S and Model X programs “with an honorable discharge.” If you’re interested in buying a Model S or X, it’s best to do it now, Musk said. The Model S and Model X factory in Fremont will be replaced by an Optimus line. “It’s slightly sad, but it is time to bring the S and X program to an end. It’s part of our overall shift to an autonomous future,” Musk said.
16:38 CT – Elon discusses how Unsupervised FSD is now starting for the Robotaxi service. He noted that these Unsupervised Robotaxis don’t have any chase cars as of yesterday. He reiterated Tesla’s plans for owners to be able to add their own vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet. Autonomy target for the end of the year is about a quarter and a half of the United States, Musk said.
Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings results
Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 earnings come on the heels of a quarter where the company produced over 434,000 vehicles, delivered over 418,000 vehicles, and deployed 14.2 GWh of energy storage products.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has released its Q4 and FY 2025 earnings results in an update letter. The document was posted on the electric vehicle maker’s official Investor Relations website after markets closed today, January 28, 2025.
Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 earnings come on the heels of a quarter where the company produced over 434,000 vehicles, delivered over 418,000 vehicles, and deployed 14.2 GWh of energy storage products.
For the Full Year 2025, Tesla produced 1,654,667 and delivered 1,636,129 vehicles. The company also deployed a total of 46.7 GWh worth of energy storage products.
Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 results
As could be seen in Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 Update Letter, the company posted GAAP EPS of $0.24 and non-GAAP EPS of $0.50 per share in the fourth quarter. Tesla also posted total revenues of $24.901 billion. GAAP net income is also listed at $840 million in Q4.
Analyst consensus for Q4 has Tesla earnings per share falling 38% to $0.45 with revenue declining 4% to $24.74 billion, as per estimates from FactSet. In comparison, the consensus compiled by Tesla last week forecasted $0.44 per share on sales totaling $24.49 billion.
For FY 2025, Tesla posted GAAP EPS of $1.08 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.66 per share. Tesla also posted total revenues of $94.827 billion, which include $69.526 billion from automotive and $12.771 billion from the battery storage business. GAAP net income is also listed at $3.794 billion in FY 2025.
xAI Investment
Tesla entered an agreement to invest approximately $2 billion to acquire Series E preferred shares in Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, as part of the company’s recently disclosed financing round. Tesla said the investment was made on market terms consistent with those agreed to by other participants in the round.
The investment aligns with Tesla’s strategy under Master Plan Part IV, which centers on bringing artificial intelligence into the physical world through products and services. While Tesla focuses on real-world AI applications, xAI is developing digital AI platforms, including its Grok large language model.
Below is Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2025 update letter.
TSLA-Q4-2025-Update by Simon Alvarez
Tesla has scheduled its Earnings Call for Q4 and Full Year 2025 for next Wednesday, January 28, at 5:30 p.m. EST, and investors are already preparing to get some answers from executives regarding a wide variety of topics.
The company accepts several questions from retail investors through the platform Say, which then allows shareholders to vote on the best questions.
Tesla does not answer anything regarding future product releases, but they are willing to shed light on current timelines, progress of certain projects, and other plans.
There are five questions that range over a variety of topics, including SpaceX, Full Self-Driving, Robotaxi, and Optimus, which are currently in the lead to be asked and potentially answered by Elon Musk and other Tesla executives:
- You once said: Loyalty deserves loyalty. Will long-term Tesla shareholders still be prioritized if SpaceX does an IPO?
- Our Take – With a lot of speculation regarding an incoming SpaceX IPO, Tesla investors, especially long-term ones, should be able to benefit from an early opportunity to purchase shares. This has been discussed endlessly over the past year, and we must be getting close to it.
- When is FSD going to be 100% unsupervised?
- Our Take – Musk said today that this is essentially a solved problem, and it could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
- What is the current bottleneck to increase Robotaxi deployment & personal use unsupervised FSD? The safety/performance of the most recent models or people to monitor robots, robotaxis, in-car, or remotely? Or something else?
- Our Take – The bottleneck seems to be based on data, which Musk said Tesla needs 10 billion miles of data to achieve unsupervised FSD. Once that happens, regulatory issues will be what hold things up from moving forward.
- Regarding Optimus, could you share the current number of units deployed in Tesla factories and actively performing production tasks? What specific roles or operations are they handling, and how has their integration impacted factory efficiency or output?
- Our Take – Optimus is going to have a larger role in factories moving forward, and later this year, they will have larger responsibilities.
- Can you please tie purchased FSD to our owner accounts vs. locked to the car? This will help us enjoy it in any Tesla we drive/buy and reward us for hanging in so long, some of us since 2017.
- Our Take – This is a good one and should get us some additional information on the FSD transfer plans and Subscription-only model that Tesla will adopt soon.
Tesla will have its Earnings Call on Wednesday, January 28.
LIVE BLOG: Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call
Tesla announces massive investment into xAI
