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Investor's Corner

Top 10 questions Tesla (TSLA) investors want to know from the Q2 2022 earnings call

(Credit: Tesla)

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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is holding its second-quarter earnings call after markets close today, July 20, 2022. As in previous quarters, Tesla investors have voted for the top questions that they want the company’s executives to answer at the upcoming Q2 2022 earnings call. 

As noted by Say, the questions that Tesla investors have submitted for the second quarter earnings call represent inquiries from both retail and institutional investors

Following are the Top 10 Questions from Retail Tesla investors:

  1. How do you feel the progress of FSD is going, and does Andrej Karpathy leaving have any significant impact on any timelines/potential progress?
  2. How is the 4680 ramp going, and is Giga Texas producing cells yet?
  3. Can you speak w/some level of precision on the 4680 ramp, expected vs. actual yield at this point in time? Same for expected daily output vs. actual, and when does output start meeting plan?
  4. Will there be early access for Tesla long-term investors to have early access to SpaceX as an investment opportunity?
  5. How does $TSLA plan to handle all the misinformation, attacks, and fake news against Tesla and Elon Musk? We have been dealing with this and it affects the stock.
  6. How do you plan on executing your strategies to create massive scale? Any ETA on Master Plan Part 3?
  7. Would you consider buying back shares if we can maintain profitability?
  8. What are the biggest 4680 headwinds? And what do you think 4680 production output will be by the end of 2022?
  9. Any update with Tesla HVAC that can be shared?
  10. Is Tesla still planning a software development kit and app store for third-party developers to make and sell Tesla apps?

And the following are the questions from Tesla institutional investors

  1. Chinese EV manufacturers seem to be doing a better job than their western competitors (excluding Tesla) at innovating in software and design. How can Tesla make sure the company is staying ahead of those manufacturers, both within and without China?
  2. When will Tesla have a unified vector space for both the static and moving object network? Will this be v11 or a later version? If the latter, can you explain what makes it a difficult problem in layman’s terms?
  3. Elon recently tweeted about lowering prices “once inflation cools down.” Can you elaborate on what you mean by cooling down and how aggressively the company will lower prices? More broadly, how do you think about auto pricing longer-term?
  4. You made the right economic call before most on inflation when you diversified into bitcoin. It has since shown it’s not much of a hedge in the real-world test the last few months. How do you think about it as an asset over the LT, and what do you need to see to change your view?
  5. With regards to the tamp of production in Austin and Berlin, how is the situation with regards to the supply of semiconductors, battery cells, and other components? How about cost inflation impacting profitability of these and other plants?
  6. What’s the source of Energy for Tesla Berlin? Would the plant would be considered a priority for the German government in case of Gas / Energy rationing?
  7. Assuming technical hurdles are achieved, what is Tesla’s plan for autonomy/robotaxi? Do you expect to first deploy into repetitive routes like Vegas Loop/airport shuttles? or launch fleets in urban areas? What is assessment of political willpower for each?
  8. What sort of demand has tesla seen for Optimus? How would you characterize this demand in terms of units? Re: economics, a hardware fee with SaaS element seems to make sense but can you guide on dollar amounts the market may be willing to pay per unit + exp. margins (at scale)?
  9. At what revenue level will Tesla have to grow its Energy Generation and Storage business to reach profitability, and when might that be achieved? Will you need new battery or solar technology advancements?
  10. How would you rate the EV industry’s progress in achieving sustainable transport, and what are the 3 most likely countries Tesla will need new Gigafactories to achieve sustainable transport?

Disclaimer: I am long TSLA.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’

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Credit: MarcoRP | X

Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.

In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.

In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:

“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”

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This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.

The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.

The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building

Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.

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The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.

This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.

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Investor's Corner

SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull

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SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12
SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12 (Credit: SpaceX)

Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.

“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”

Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12

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Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.

It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”

Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.

There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:

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“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”

SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst

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elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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