Investor's Corner
Tesla is a wake-up call for rivals and their ‘awful’ software, says longtime finance host
As Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) battled a fresh wave of criticism following the release of its Q1 2019 vehicle production and delivery report, the company saw a supporter from a rather unlikely place. During a segment on Fox Business Network‘s Mornings with Maria, one of the show’s panels boldly defended Tesla, calling for more support for the company due to its industry-changing innovations.
Tesla and Elon Musk’s court appearance with the SEC was the primary topic in the segment, and the show brought on ARK Invest analyst Tasha Keeney to get her insights on the electric car maker. ARK is among the most bullish supporters of Tesla, with the firm setting a $4,000 price target for the company’s stock provided that it enters the autonomous ride-sharing market. Speaking to the show’s hosts, the ARK analyst reiterated her firm’s stance on the company as a potential leader in the self-driving market.
Dagen McDowell, a longtime finance journalist and one of the panels in Mornings with Maria, pointed out that Tesla’s edge is evident even at its current state where it does not have a consumer-ready full self-driving suite. McDowell argued that among the prominent automakers today, Tesla is the leader when it comes to vehicle software, an emerging industry that could be worth up to $1.2 trillion by 2030.
“You don’t even need to look ahead to autonomous vehicles. I had this discussion with someone I’m close to over the weekend who works in Silicon Valley. Every other automaker, even luxury automakers in Germany, Japanese, and American, they are awful at software. There is no other car and no other car company that compares to a Tesla. We all, as drivers and consumers, ought to be rooting for this company. You don’t have to own stock in it, but you ought to root for them because hopefully, all these automakers will realize, ‘Oh, our software stinks,’” McDowell said.
There is no doubt that Tesla is still learning several key aspects of the vehicle manufacturing process. The company is only turning 16 years old this year, and over that time, it has transformed itself from a niche carmaker that made a very quick and expensive car for the rich to a company that is on the brink of disrupting the mass market auto industry. At its core, Tesla is still a young company, and its lack of expertise in areas such as fine manufacturing processes is understandable, especially considering the number of vehicles it is producing today.
What Tesla has mastery of is vehicle software. Since the days of the first-generation Model S, the company has proven to be far ahead of competitors. Keeney named Tesla’s free over-the-air updates as a prime example of this, since the company’s more experienced rivals are largely still unable to implement the same system on their own vehicles. McDowell proved bolder, flat-out stating that traditional automakers simply don’t know how to make tomorrow’s vehicles. “It’s because they’re dug in and they don’t know how to run a car company in the new century. That’s literally what these companies look like. I’m surprised that Apple and Google haven’t done more to try and manufacture a car or produce software for one,” she said.
Tesla might be ending the week as volatile and polarizing as ever, but the company seems to be heading towards some calmer waters ahead. With the first quarter done, Tesla can now focus more on producing and delivering its vehicles in the second quarter. The over 10,000 vehicles in transit at the end of Q1 could actually work in Tesla’s favor in Q2, as the company will be starting the quarter with over 10,000 electric car sales.
Apart from this, Elon Musk and the SEC’s court hearing proved to be far less dramatic than what the company’s critics have wished. Prior to Musk’s appearance in court, speculations among Tesla skeptics pointed to the possibility that he would be stripped off the CEO’s title, and possibly even fired from the company. Over the course of the hearing, Judge Alison Nathan proved incredibly objective, asking the SEC to clarify if Musk would need to get approval for tweets that reiterated information that had already been disclosed. She also asserted that government lawyers must take all steps necessary to reach a resolution before invoking contempt.
At the end of the hearing, the judge urged Elon Musk and the SEC’s legal team to “take a deep breath, put your reasonableness pants on, and work this out.” Musk did not speak during the hearing, though he did state that he was “very impressed with Judge Nathan’s analysis” as he was leaving the courthouse.
As of writing, Tesla stock is trading +2.01% at $273.15.
Watch the recent Tesla segment in Fox Business Network‘s Mornings with Maria in the video below.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s newest Starmind will make earth data centers obsolete
Elon Musk confirmed Starmind as SpaceX’s AI satellite constellation name, targeting one million orbital compute nodes.
Elon Musk confirmed that Starmind will be the official name of SpaceX’s planned AI satellite constellation, following a trademark filing by xAI that surfaced earlier this week. Starmind is what’s being described to the FCC as a constellation of up to one million AI satellites
It’s worth noting that SpaceX’s Starlink communication satellite and Starmind are built on the same orbital infrastructure concept but serve entirely different purposes. Starlink is a connectivity network, with satellites receiving and relaying data between points on Earth, and functioning as a high-speed internet backbone in space. The satellites themselves do not process or think, and move information from one place to another, the same function a fiber cable performs underground.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
Starmind, on the other hand, is something completely different, and tather than moving data, its satellites would compute data through artificial intelligence and directly in orbit using onboard processors powered by large solar arrays. Where a Starlink satellite is essentially a very fast pipe, a Starmind satellite is a server. The practical implication is that Starmind would allow AI models to run inference, process queries, and generate outputs from space, then beam results down to users anywhere on Earth within milliseconds, and without the data ever needing to travel to a terrestrial data center.
Starship will be able to carry 30 to 50 AI1 satellites per launch, delivering the equivalent of dozens of server racks per flight, with no land acquisition, no power grid approval, and no cooling infrastructure required on the ground.
SpaceX is pursuing this new technology as terrestrial data centers are running into hard limits such as lack of physical space, community opposition, and power and water consumption at a scale that is increasingly difficult to permit. Space has unlimited solar power, natural vacuum cooling, and no zoning boards. Musk said in a June 8 video presentation that he expects space to become the lowest-cost location to deploy AI compute within two to three years. Two AI1 prototypes are scheduled to launch in early 2027, with volume production targeted for the end of that year at a new facility called Gigasat.
The real world applications Starmind enables extend well beyond powering Grok. A constellation of orbiting AI processors could run inference workloads for any paying customer, anywhere on Earth, with latency measured in milliseconds rather than the seconds associated with ground-based cloud routing across continents. Starmind, if it scales as described, would make SpaceX the landlord of AI compute the same way Starlink made it the landlord of satellite internet.
SpaceX announced today that it commenced its first-ever public bond offering, marking a significant step in the newly public company’s capital markets strategy.
The company announced an offering of senior unsecured notes expected to raise at least $20 billion.
The move comes just a short time after SpaceX completed one of the largest initial public offerings in history. In mid-June, the company priced shares at $135 and raised more than $85 billion, propelling founder Elon Musk’s net worth past the trillion-dollar mark and giving the firm substantial liquidity.
🚨 SpaceX has announced its inaugural offering of senior unsecured notes.
The net proceeds will be used to repay outstanding loans under its bridge loan facility in full.
This inaugural debt offering represents a financing milestone for SpaceX, which previously depended… pic.twitter.com/pcOZuVbTRv
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 22, 2026
According to the company’s SEC filing, the net proceeds from the notes will be used primarily to repay in full the outstanding borrowings under its existing bridge loan facility, cover related fees and expenses, and fund general corporate purposes. The offering is being conducted under Rule 144A, as well as Regulation S, targeting qualified institutional buyers and non-U.S. investors. Notes will be unsecured obligations ranking equally with other unsubordinated debt.
The $20 billion bridge loan was used to refinance approximately $17.5 billion in higher-cost “junk” debt tied to X and xAI. SpaceX had merged with xAI in February 2026 in an all-stock deal. The bridge facility, which matures in September 2027, had represented the bulk of SpaceX’s long-term debt.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
In connection with the bond launch, SpaceX disclosed it held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19. Investor calls began on the announcement date, with pricing and launch expected shortly thereafter. Rating agencies have assigned investment-grade ratings to the proposed bonds, reflecting confidence in SpaceX’s dominant position in commercial launches and the growth trajectory of its Starlink internet offering.
The debt raise also allows SpaceX to optimize its balance sheet by replacing short-term, higher-cost bridge financing with longer-date, lower-cost fixed-income securities. This provides greater financial flexibility to support capital-intensive initiatives, including the development of Starship, the expansion of the Starlink constellation, and the integration of AI capabilities following the xAI combination.
SpaceX shares (NASDAQ: SPCX) fell sharply on the news, dropping over 16 percent overall on the market on Monday. The stock had surged initially after debuting but pulled back amid profit-taking and broader market dynamics.
Overall, the bond offering underscores SpaceX’s transition to a mature public company with access to diverse funding sources. It positions the firm to pursue its long-term vision of multiplanetary expansion and AI infrastructure, while maintaining a disciplined approach to its capital structure in a high-growth but capital-heavy industry.
Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update
Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing
