Investor's Corner
What to look for in Tesla Motors Q1 Financials
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to announce its first quarter earnings report after market close on Wednesday, May 4, 2016.
TSLA reported 4th quarter 2015 earnings of $ -0.87 per share on February 10, 2016. This missed the consensus of $ 0.10 by $ -0.97 of the 16 analysts covering this company. Interestingly that turned out to be the end of a dramatic 42% slide which began on January 1st. Since then TSLA has moved from its lowest point of $141 on that day to roughly $250 per share, a 78% increase in just 3 months. That kind of tells you that TSLA is a stock not for the faint of heart.
Source: WallSt I/O
The consensus of the 14 analysts covering TSLA for 1st quarter 2016 is a per share loss of $ -.57, with range estimates of: 0.080 | -0.569 | -1.000 (High | Mean | Low).
$TSLA earnings summary via E-Trade
Based on 20 analysts offering 12-month targets from TSLA, the average price target is $243.95, effectively a zero-move from the current stock price. If you are an “investor” in TSLA stock, the pros tell you that TSLA will not go anywhere in the next 12 months.
$TSLA analysis via TipRanks
So those are the numbers from the pros, but if you still decide that you want to trade TSLA stock, what should you be looking for in the quarterly results and the conference call webcast?
Q1 Vehicle Deliveries
Let’s take a look at a few items from the “Tesla 4th Quarter & Full year 2015 Shareholder Letter”.
In the “Q1 and Full Year 2016 Outlook” section, Tesla states that “we plan to deliver 80,000 to 90,000 new Model S and Model X vehicles in 2016. […] In Q1, we plan to grow deliveries 60% year on year to approximately 16,000 vehicles”.
Source: Tesla Motors
We already know that Q1 deliveries did not meet the promised 16,000 units, as that number was actually 14,820, due to “severe Model X supplier parts shortages in January and February” as provided in a Press Release on April 4, 2016. In the same release, “Tesla reaffirms its full-year delivery guidance [of 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles].”
The missing income due to the delayed Model X vehicles delivery will be partially offset by the initial Model 3 “reservations”. It is quite interesting that reservations opened on March 31, 2016, the last day in the quarter, and at least 125,000 of them may be counted as an additional $125M income in Q1. In the end, guidance on vehicle deliveries for Q2 2016 will be one of the deciding factors on where TSLA stock moves post the Q1 report.
Cash Flow and Margins
In the same Q4 Shareholder Letter, Tesla states that “we expect to generate positive net cash flow and achieve non-GAAP profitability for the full-year 2016”, and “we plan to fund about $1.5 billion in capital expenditures without accessing any outside capital.” These are both very aggressive goals, especially in light of the 400,000+ Model 3 reservations, as of the latest disclosed counts. Elon Musk has already tweeted that he is “definitely going to need to rethink production plans”, which likely means that another factory will be needed to produce the Model 3 in a reasonable timeline that will allow delivery to the majority of the current reservation holders. This more aggressive delivery of Model 3 vehicles as originally envisioned will likely require outside capital for building such factory.
Definitely going to need to rethink production planning…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016
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Since missing the mark on Model X will impact cash flow for Q1, I would expect questions in the conference call asking if the issues have been resolved, and if the missing Model X numbers can be made up in Q2. While cash flow reversed action to the positive for the first time during Q4 2015, with a strong $179M cash flow from core operations, Tesla needs to prove that this behavior will continue in 2016.
Again in the Q1 Shareholder Letter, Tesla states that “Throughout the rest of 2016, Automotive gross margins should continue to increase. […] Model S gross margins should begin to approach 30% and Model X gross margins should be about 25%.” In Q4 gross margins were 20.9% for the Tesla Model S and even a slight increase in margins will be viewed positively by the market. This is a number that will be greatly watched as Tesla needs to prove that it can eventually deliver 500K+ vehicles / year at a profit. Much of the current valuation of Tesla stock is built on this assumption. Accordingly, a drop in margins for Q1 would be viewed very negatively by the market, at least for the short term.
Summarizing, besides vehicle delivery, cash flow and margins will be the other two drivers of the TSLA stock short-term market action after the Q1 report numbers are released.
Live Q&A Webcast
Tesla management will hold a live question & answer webcast on May 4 at 2:30pm Pacific Time to discuss the Company’s financial and business results and outlook. Live and replay webcast will be available at http://ir.teslamotors.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=171952 .
Tip of the Week
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Starting with today’s posting I’ll be including a “tip of the week.” This may involve covering a trading concept, or recommending a website with tools or information useful to investors and traders of TSLA.
For this week, I am recommending signing up for the free Basic Membership of TipRanks. With it you can receive free alerts for 1 stock and 1 expert, which is enough for the ones just interested in TSLA stock. Happy trading.
Disclosure: I currently have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but I may plan to initiate positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Teslarati). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck production snaps back after ugly supplier fight
Cybertrucks are piling up again at Giga Texas after Tesla’s court win against a parts supplier.
Cybertruck production at Giga Texas is showing its first visible recovery since Tesla sued a supplier last month over withheld manufacturing tooling.
Aerial observer Joe Tegtmeyer flew over the Austin factory Wednesday morning and counted roughly 100 or more Cybertrucks filling the outbound lot, a sharp jump from the thin numbers seen in recent weeks. The flyover came a day after a judge granted Tesla a temporary restraining order against Angstrom Automotive Group, the parts supplier at the center of the dispute.
Tesla filed an emergency lawsuit in late July after Angstrom told the automaker it planned to close the Troy, Texas facility where Tesla’s die-cast tools, trim dies and other Cybertruck stamping equipment were housed. According to Tesla’s complaint, a shipment of 700 finished parts never left the building, and when Tesla sent representatives to retrieve its equipment, accompanied by law enforcement, they were turned away. Angstrom allegedly then asked for an extra $250,000 a week to keep operating, which Tesla’s filing described as holding its own property for ransom.
TESLA: U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Wolfe of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division granted Tesla a Temporary Restraining Order and Writ of Replevin in its dispute with Angstrom Automotive (Case No. 6:26-cv-00477).
The order authorizes… https://t.co/E1DKcQSxMn pic.twitter.com/LR8aAiV2Og
— S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr) August 5, 2026
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The restraining order gives Tesla immediate right of entry to Angstrom’s facility to recover the tooling. It is temporary, with a fuller hearing still to come, but the speed of Wednesday’s rebound suggests the Angstrom shortage was indeed the main bottleneck limiting Cybertruck output. Outbound lot counts are an imperfect measure of actual production, since finished trucks can sit for days before shipping, but a lot that full after a lean stretch is a meaningful signal.
Cybertruck output at Giga Texas has fluctuated all year as Tesla worked through supply issues and introduced new trims, including a cheaper Dual Motor AWD version that drew strong early demand.
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya has cautioned investors shorting SpaceX shares, drawing a direct parallel to the intense short-selling pressure Tesla faced in its early public years.
Responding to reports of elevated short interest in the newly public rocket, satellite, and AI company, Palihapitiya noted that similar dynamics played out with Tesla, where aggressive short sellers ultimately “went broke.”
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO on record, pricing at $135 per share. Shares quickly surged to an all-time high of $225.64 just days later, briefly implying a valuation exceeding $2 trillion. The stock has since retreated sharply amid valuation concerns, lockup expiration fears, and broader market dynamics.
By early August, it traded near $108–$125, representing a roughly 50 percent decline from the peak and bringing the market capitalization closer to the $1.5–1.7 trillion range. On August 4, shares closed up more than 9 percent at $125.33 ahead of earnings before facing pressure in after-hours and premarket trading.
Short interest has climbed dramatically. According to S3 Partners data widely cited in market reports, short positions reached approximately 219.3 million shares by late July, about 34 percent of the limited public float of roughly 640 million shares, and represented a notional value of around $24.6 billion.
Utilization of shares available to borrow hit 95 percent, with borrow fees rising. This level of shorting exceeded the dollar value of short bets against Tesla at the time and built rapidly ahead of two catalysts: the company’s first post-IPO earnings and an August 6 lockup expiration that could free up to 911.5 million additional shares.
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CEO Elon Musk has issued warnings of his own. In mid-July, as short interest approached one-third of the float, he posted that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” reiterating his view that the company could ultimately be worth more than Earth if it achieves its goals.
On August 4, just before earnings, Musk responded to the latest short-interest data by saying, “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”
SpaceX delivered its first quarterly results as a public company after the close on August 4. Second-quarter revenue rose 92 percent year-over-year to $7.8 billion, beating consensus estimates near $6.8–6.9 billion.
The net loss narrowed to $541 million, or 9 cents per share, better than the roughly 23–24 cent loss expected. Starlink/connectivity contributed about $4.3 billion (up 66 percent), while the AI business generated $2.6 billion (up roughly 250 percent). Capital expenditures were heavy at $18.4 billion, largely tied to AI infrastructure. Management projected a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by year-end 2026 and outlined a path toward $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030.
The combination of Chamath’s historical reminder, Musk’s repeated alerts, and the company’s ambitious growth targets underscores the high-stakes debate surrounding SPCX. Short sellers are positioned for near-term supply pressure from the lockup, while long-term bulls point to Starlink scale, Starship progress, and AI compute expansion as reasons the bears may ultimately face the same fate as many early Tesla skeptics.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX and Nvidia team up on Musk’s orbital AI bet
SpaceX revealed a new Nvidia satellite partnership, then Musk pledged an exclusive Nvidia hardware commitment.
SpaceX and Nvidia are now working together on the hardware that will power Musk’s orbital data center ambitions. SpaceX announced on X on Tuesday that it is partnering with Nvidia to design the compute payload for Starmind AI1, the first satellite in a planned constellation built to run AI workloads directly in orbit. Each Starmind satellite will carry Nvidia’s Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, according to the post, which included renderings of the payload design.
The announcement landed hours before SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company, where Musk went further, saying the company has committed to building its AI infrastructure exclusively on Nvidia hardware. “We think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture. We think it’s the best AI computer, and we greatly value our close cooperation and partnership on many levels with Nvidia,” Musk told investors on the call,. “So we’re exclusive to Nvidia.”
Musk said SpaceX plans to deploy Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 rackscale system, codenamed Kyber, both on the ground and in space. He set a target of 2 gigawatts of compute capacity online by the end of this year, scaling to roughly 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027.
SpaceX’s newest Starmind will make earth data centers obsolete
Starmind has been in development since Musk confirmed the name in June, following an xAI trademark filing that tipped off the project before SpaceX made it official. The idea is massive in scope and instead of moving data down to ground based servers, satellites equipped with onboard processors and large solar arrays would compute AI workloads in orbit and beam results back to Earth. SpaceX has already filed with the FCC for a constellation of up to one million satellites to support the effort, citing constant solar power and the absence of zoning restrictions as advantages over terrestrial data centers.
The Nvidia exclusivity marks a shift in tone from just two weeks ago, when Musk was busy knocking down a report that SpaceX had ordered $52 billion worth of Nvidia GPUs through Foxconn, calling it fake news at the time. The dollar figure in that rumor may have been wrong, but the underlying direction seems correct. SpaceX’s AI division already leases Colossus compute capacity to Anthropic and Google, and Tuesday’s earnings report showed AI revenue climbing sharply as those deals ramp up.
Nvidia shares rose roughly 3% in Tuesday trading on the news, while SpaceX stock climbed nearly 9% during the day before giving back gains after hours as investors digested the earnings report’s capital spending figures.
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Tesla’s mysterious Robovan makes a sneak peek with Optimus in Terafab video
Tesla Cybertruck production snaps back after ugly supplier fight
