Investor's Corner
Tesla becomes 4th-largest US short amid countdown for Q3’s earnings
Earlier this year, Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) held the title of being the most-shorted company in the US stock market. But at the end of August, Tesla became second to Amazon as the US’ most-shorted stock, before being overtaken by Apple in early September. On Tuesday, Tesla’s place in the list fell again, putting the carmaker directly behind e-commerce behemoth Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), tech giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and chipmaker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM). With this, Tesla has now become the 4th-largest short in the US market.
The recent updates on Tesla’s short interest were posted yesterday by S3 Partners LLC Managing Director of Predictive Analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky. The S3 Partners exec noted that Tesla’s short interest is currently at $8.16 billion with 32.58 million shares shorted, corresponding to 25.55% of the company’s float. Dusaniwsky stated that over the past week, 1.2 million shares were covered amidst the steep 17% drop in TSLA stock. Tesla shorts are also up $416 million in mark-to-market profits.
$TSLA short interest is $8.16 billion, the 4th largest U.S. short behind $AAPL, $AMZN & $QCOM; 32.58 million shares shorted; 25.55% of float. 1.2 million shares covered over the last week as #Tesla's stock price fell 17%. Shorts up $416 million in mark-to-market October profits pic.twitter.com/5iXW8KWpvB
— Ihor Dusaniwsky🇺🇦 (@ihors3) October 9, 2018
Tesla stock saw a sharp decline last week when Elon Musk courted renewed controversy by posting a series of tweets critical of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk tweeted against the SEC on Thursday, at a time when Tesla stock was already down 4.4%. After Musk posted his criticism of the agency on Twitter, Tesla shares dipped 2% more. The following trading days were equally cruel to TSLA, with the stock ending Monday at a nearly 18-month low. The electric car maker showed some recovery on Tuesday, though, with shares rising 4.89% amidst a positive note from Macquarie Capital Inc, which gave Tesla an Outperform rating and a price target of $430 per share.
Despite its lower rankings in the list of most-shorted companies in the US market, Tesla remains a heavily-shorted stock. That said, the number of TSLA shares held short today is considerably lower than May’s figures, when Tesla had 39 million shares were held short – the highest in the company’s history. TSLA short interest has mostly decreased since then, recently falling to just 32.58 million shares as of Tuesday.
The apparent decline in Tesla’s short interest comes as the countdown for the release of Tesla’s Q3 2018 earnings report continues. Tesla had ambitious targets in the third quarter, as the company aimed to produce and deliver more than 50,000 Model 3 from July to September – a goal that was achieved. That said, while Tesla was able to set new delivery and production records in Q3, it remains to be seen if the company was able to turn a profit – target set by Elon Musk earlier this year.
A critical factor that can contribute to Tesla’s earnings in Q3 would lie in the Model 3, the company’s first attempt at a mass-market car. That said, if the company’s Q3 production and delivery figures are any indication, it appears that Q3 was the quarter when the Model 3 ramp started hitting its stride. Less than 48 hours before Q3 ended, Elon Musk even sent an email to Tesla employees, encouraging them to push harder since the company was “very close to profitability.”
“We are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong, but, to be certain, we must execute really well tomorrow (Sunday). If we go all out tomorrow, we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations,” Musk wrote.
This November, the market would see if Tesla achieved the “epic victory” that Elon Musk teased in his email. Despite the controversy stirred by Musk on Twitter, after all, Tesla’s fundamentals appear to be steadily improving.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just filed for the IPO everyone was waiting for
SpaceX filed its public S-1, revealing $18.7 billion in revenue and billions in losses.
SpaceX publicly filed its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, making its financial details available to the public for the first time ahead of what could be the largest IPO in history.
An S-1 is the formal document a company must submit to the SEC before going public. It includes audited financials, risk factors, business descriptions, and how the company plans to use the money it raises. Companies are required to file one before selling shares to the public, and it must be published at least 15 days before the investor roadshow begins. SpaceX had already submitted a confidential draft to the SEC in April, which allowed regulators to review the filing privately before it went public.
The S-1 reveals that SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in consolidated revenue in 2025, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet division, which posted $11.4 billion in revenue, growing nearly 50% year over year. Despite that growth, the company lost about $4.9 billion in 2025 and has burned through more than $37 billion since its founding.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
A significant portion of those losses trace back to xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which was recently merged into SpaceX. SpaceX directed roughly 60% of its capital spending in 2025 to its AI division, totaling around $20 billion, yet that division lost billions and grew revenue by only about 22%.
SpaceX plans to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America leading the offering. The dual-class share structure means going public will not meaningfully reduce Musk’s control, as Class B shares he holds carry 10 votes per share compared to one vote for public Class A shares.
The company is targeting a raise of around $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO ever. The investor roadshow is reportedly planned for June 5.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon just joined forces for one reason: Starlink is winning.
America’s three largest wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, announced on On May 14, 2026 that they had agreed in principle to form a joint venture aimed at pooling their spectrum resources to expand satellite-based direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity across the United States in what can be seen as a direct response to SpaceX’s Starlink initiative. D2D, in plain terms, is technology that lets a standard smartphone connect directly to a satellite in orbit, the same way it connects to a cell tower, with no extra hardware required.
The alliance is widely seen as a means to slow Starlink’s rapid expansion in the satellite internet and mobile markets. SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile service launched commercially in July 2025 through a partnership with T-Mobile, starting with messaging before expanding to broadband data. SpaceX secured access to valuable wireless spectrum through its $17 billion deal with EchoStar, paving the way for significantly faster satellite-to-phone speeds.
SpaceX was not shy about its reaction. SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded on X: “Weeeelllll, I guess Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David.” SpaceX’s VP of Satellite Policy David Goldman went further, flagging potential antitrust concerns and asking whether the DOJ would even allow three dominant competitors to coordinate in a market where a new rival is actively entering.
Weeeelllll, I guess @Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David 🙂 https://t.co/5GzS752mxL
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) May 14, 2026
Financial analysts at LightShed Partners were blunt, saying the announcement showed the three carriers are “nervous,” and pointed to the timing: “You announce an agreement in principle when the point is the announcement, not the deal. The timing, weeks ahead of the SpaceX roadshow, was the point.”
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX’s next generation Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current system, with custom silicon and phased array antennas enabling around 20 times the throughput of the first generation. The carriers’ JV, which has no definitive agreement, no financial structure, and no deployment timeline yet, will need to move quickly to matter.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing as early as June 12, aiming for what would be the largest IPO in history. With Starlink now serving over 9 million subscribers across 155 countries, holding 59 carrier partnerships globally, and now powering Air Force One, the carriers’ joint venture announcement landed at exactly the wrong time to look like anything other than a defensive move.
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