Are Tesla investors losing patience with Elon Musk?
Sceptics have long puzzled over investors’ tendency to buy into Musk’s latest wild prediction, even as previous prognostications came to nought. Musk’s knack for diverting attention from underwhelming numbers was in evidence during the last quarter, when lousy results were overshadowed by promises of a cheaper Tesla in “early 2025″ or earlier, as well as an August robotaxi event and the usual talk about full self-driving technology.
On Monday, Tesla delivered its latest awful results, with earnings plunging 45 per cent and profit margins continuing to shrink. Little wonder Musk attempted to “get investors to look anywhere but at the bottom line”, as AJ Bell’s Danni Hewson put it. Instead, Musk waxed lyrical about plans for a humanoid robot, Optimus.
“The long-term value of Optimus will exceed that of everything else at Tesla combined,” Musk said. “Everyone on Earth is going to want one,” he predicted, with long-term demand potentially exceeding 20 billion units. As for the robotaxi, the August event has been pushed back to October. Musk, who said in 2019 he was “very confident” in predicting autonomous robotaxis in 2020, says he will be “shocked” if the first robotaxi ride doesn’t occur next year.
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Since bottoming in April, Tesla shares had rallied over 80 per cent. Unsurprisingly, then, investors weren’t impressed by Musk’s insistence that Optimus “would work anywhere, even a new Earth”, with shares suffering their steepest one-day fall since 2020, sinking 12 per cent.
Musk won’t focus on more prosaic realities any time soon, says long-time Tesla bear Jim Chanos. Instead, expect more lofty promises like “ocean farming, asteroid mining and time travel”.
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