Investor's Corner
Is Tesla’s ‘next era’ really without TSLA?
With just a few Tweets, Elon Musk announced that he intends to take Tesla private. The move came less than a week after the company’s Q2 earnings call, where Musk doubled-down on his promise to bring the company to profit in the second half of 2018. With Musk steadying his hand, it seemed he was pushing forward a “new era” for Tesla, one that aims for mild profitability, rapid growth, and continuing innovation. What’s changed?
“Grandiose promises were replaced with reachable projections, relentless growth was met with fiscal responsibility, and shaky improvisation gave way to clarity,” written in last week’s post-earnings column.
Over the last few years, Musk has often wondered aloud how Tesla would be different if it weren’t public. In Rolling Stone’s cover story of Musk last fall, he stated, “It actually makes us less efficient to be a public company.” Musk also told Bloomberg in a 2015 interview that there is “a lot of noise” when a company is public.
Would Tesla have existed without going public in 2010?
Short Answer. No.
Long Answer. Maybe.
When Tesla went public in June 2010, the company needed the cash. They were aiming to push the Model S into production and needed every dime to hire factory workers and renovate the factory. Going public for Tesla worked. The company was able to move the Model S into production and was delivering a few hundred vehicles per week before raising more money from the capital markets.
Since going public, Tesla has raised nearly $10B through debt and equity offerings (Not including the acquisition of SolarCity’s debt). It’s a sizable amount, but it pales in comparison to some private companies. For example, Uber, Lyft, and WeWork have all raised billions in the last few years. Uber has raised over $21B since its founding in 2009, Lyft has raised $4.9B since its start in 2012, and WeWork has raised $6.9B in the last 8 years.
Before Tesla went public, Musk had to pour his fortune into the company just to convince others to invest. In the past eight years, the private markets have gained a tremendous appetite. No deal is too big. No ask is ridiculous.
Who wants in on “Private Tesla”?
A lot of names have been floating around in the past day. Who’s backing Elon’s private deal? The Saudi Wealth Fund? Tencent? Softbank? Google? All of the above?
In 2016, Softbank created a $93B Vision Fund. The fund has been making massive bets everywhere, Uber, Flipkart, WeWork, NVidia, and many more. Participating in “new Tesla” wouldn’t be out of character and it would be hard to see the company passing on one of the largest private deals in history.
The Saudi Wealth Fund and Tencent both recently made sizable equity positions in the company. Tesla going private could afford them a chance to grab a board seat and a larger share of the company. The Saudi Wealth Fund announced their sizable stake yesterday morning and Tencent announced theirs in March 2017.
Google? Did I just throw them out there? The company already owns a chunk of Musk’s SpaceX and in Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography of Elon Musk, it was revealed that Google mulled acquiring the company for $6B in early 2013 (Tesla was worth $3-4B at the time). Google’s parent company has over $100B in cash on hand, so a sizable investment into Tesla is certainly doable.
Outside of those specific entities, its worth noting that Tesla could draw significant capital from Silicon Valley. While most private equity in the valley goes to companies far smaller than Tesla, it wouldn’t be shocking to see venture firms and fellow billionaires take a position in Tesla.
So what does “Private Tesla” really look like?
In Musk’s perfect “Private Tesla” scenario, he envisions all current investors to keeping their shares with the company. But how would that really work? Musk claims that it would be structured similarly to SpaceX, which allows employees and investors to buy or sell stock every 6 months (or other liquidation events, ie. investments). That structure gives Tesla much tighter control of the share price, preventing volatility.
Highlighted in a report from The Information, current SpaceX shareholders receive a disclosure packet, along with updated financials, every 5-9 months. The process allows the company to set their own share price, after gauging outside and inside interest in acquiring or selling shares. SpaceX currently holds a valuation of $28B.
“We can afford to be picky (with investors). There’s a lot more people wanting our stock than we are willing to sell. It’s a great place to be in.” – Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX (CNBC, May 2018)
With Tesla being private, the company would forgo reporting quarterly earnings, most SEC filings, and annual shareholders meetings. Additionally, Tesla would have more flexibility in their accounting practices and reporting and less regulatory concerns. Essentially, as Musk as stated, the company would be able to operate more efficiently.
Only time will tell if Musk can pull off “taking Tesla private”. Given the size of the private markets and Musk’s drive to reduce distractions within the company, Tesla could certainly end up going private. I wouldn’t bet against Musk, just a personal rule, and it wouldn’t be out-of-character for Musk to pull off the impossible.
Great reads:
Tesla board curbs critics’ doubts as Elon Musk’s privatization plan starts forming (Teslarati)
Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow (Rolling Stone)
Google almost bought Tesla when it had just two weeks of cash left (The Guardian)
How SoftBank Is Reshaping Global Tech (The Information)
Investor's Corner
Tesla is ‘better-positioned’ as a company and as a stock as tariff situation escalates
Tesla is “better-positioned” as a company and as a stock as the tariff situation between the United States, Mexico, and Canada continues to escalate as President Donald Trump announced sanctions against those countries.
Analysts at Piper Sandler are unconcerned regarding Tesla’s position as a high-level stock holding as the tariff drama continues to unfold. This is mostly due to its reputation as a vehicle manufacturer in the domestic market, especially as it holds a distinct advantage of having some of the most American-made vehicles in the country.
Analysts at the firm, led by Alexander Potter, said Tesla is “one of the most defensive stocks” in the automotive sector as the tariff situation continues.
The defensive play comes from the nature of the stock, which should not be too impacted from a U.S. standpoint because of its focus on building vehicles and sourcing parts from manufacturers and companies based in the United States. Tesla has held the distinct title of having several of the most American-made cars, based on annual studies from Cars.com.
Its most recent study, released in June 2024, showed that the Model Y, Model S, and Model X are three of the top ten vehicles with the most U.S.-based manufacturing.
Tesla captures three spots in Cars.com’s American-Made Index, only U.S. manufacturer in list
The year prior, Tesla swept the top four spots of the study.
Piper Sandler analysts highlighted this point in a new note on Monday morning amidst increasing tension between the U.S. and Canada, as Mexico has already started to work with the Trump Administration on a solution:
“Tesla assembles five vehicles in the U.S., and all five rank among the most American-made cars.”
However, with that being said, there is certainly the potential for things to get tougher. The analysts believe that Tesla, while potentially impacted, will be in a better position than most companies because of their domestic position:
“If nothing changes in the next few days, tariffs will almost certainly deal a crippling blow to automotive supply chains in North America. [There is a possibility that] Trump capitulates in some way (perhaps he’ll delay implementation, in an effort to save face).”
There is no evidence that Tesla will be completely bulletproof when it comes to these potential impacts. However, it is definitely better insulated than other companies.
Need accessories for your Tesla? Check out the Teslarati Marketplace:
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-cybertruck-accessories
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-model-y-accessories
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-model-3-accessories
Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a price target boost from analysts at Truist Securities, but it came with some criticisms based on a lack of information on several things that investors were excited to hear about regarding future vehicles and AI achievements.
Last night, Tesla reported its earnings from the fourth quarter of 2024, and while it had a very tempered financial showing, missing most of the Wall Street targets that were set for it, the stock was up after hours and on Thursday due to the details the company released regarding its plans for 2025.
CEO Elon Musk stunned listeners last night by revealing plans to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June 2025. It will be the first time Tesla will offer driverless FSD rides in public, something it has been working with the City of Austin on since December.
Tesla to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June
It also reiterated plans for affordable models to be launched this year, potentially catalyzing annual growth in deliveries, something it said it expects to resume in 2025.
Tesla was flat on deliveries in 2024 compared to 2023.
The positives during the call were enough for Truist Securities analyst William Stein to raise the company’s price target to $373 from $351. However, Stein’s note to investors showed there was something to be desired despite all the good that was revealed during the call:
Stein said there was “not enough ground-truth” during the call and too much of a focus on “cheerleading” the company’s potential releases this year:
“Too much cheerleading; not enough ground-truth. In Q4, TSLA’s ASP weakness drive revenue, GPM, OPM, & EPS below consensus.”
As previously mentioned, Tesla did report weak financials that missed consensus estimates. What saved the call and perhaps the stock from plummeting on these missed metrics was the other details that Musk revealed, especially the FSD launch in Austin in June.
There were also plenty of things related to the affordable models and other vehicles, like the fact that Tesla plans to include things like Steer by Wire, Adaptive Air Suspension, and Rear Wheel Steering, that helped offset negatives.
Stein saw this as a distraction from what should have been reported:
“While CEO Elon Musk played the role of cheerleader, calling for TSLA’s path to massive market cap by leading in autonomy, management was remarkably short on two critical details: (1) info about new vehicles in 2025 and (2) milestones for AI acheivements, especially FSD. We continue to ask ourselves ‘where’s the beef?’ CY26 EPS to $3.99 (from $4.87). DCF-derived PT to $373 (from $351).”
Tesla did detail some AI milestones, like its record-breaking miles per accident on Autopilot, which was a Q4-best of 5.94 million miles. The Shareholder Deck also outlined major upgrades to AI:
“In Q4, we completed the deployment of Cortex, a ~50k H100 training cluster at Gigafactory Texas. Cortex helped enable V13 of FSD (Supervised)1, which boasts major improvements in safety and comfort thanks to 4.2x increase in data, higher resolution video inputs, 2x reduction in photon-to-control latency and redesigned controller, among other enhancements.”
Tesla shares are up 2.11 percent on Thursday as of 12:05 p.m. on the East Coast.
Need accessories for your Tesla? Check out the Teslarati Marketplace:
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-cybertruck-accessories
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-model-y-accessories
- https://shop.teslarati.com/collections/tesla-model-3-accessories
Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla has released its Q4 2024 vehicle safety report. Similar to data from previous quarters, vehicles that were operating with Autopilot technology proved notably safer.
The Q4 2024 report:
- As per Tesla, it recorded one crash for every 5.94 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology.
- The company also recorded one crash for every 1.08 million miles driven for drivers who were not using Autopilot technology.
- For comparison, the most recent data available from the NHTSA and FHWA (from 2023) showed that there was one automobile crash every 702,000 miles in the United States.
Previous safety reports:
- In Q3 2024, Tesla recorded one crash for every 7.08 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology and one crash for every 1.29 million miles driven by drivers not using Autopilot technology.
- In Q2 2024, Tesla recorded one crash for every 6.88 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology, and one crash for every 1.45 million miles driven for drivers not using Autopilot technology.
- In Q1 2024, Tesla recorded one crash for every 7.63 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology, and one crash for every 955,000 million miles driven for drivers not using Autopilot technology.
Year-over-Year Comparison:
- In Q4 2023, Tesla recorded one crash for every 5.39 million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology and one crash for every 1.00 million miles driven for drivers not using Autopilot technology.
Key background:
- Tesla began voluntarily releasing quarterly safety reports in October 2018 to provide critical safety information about our vehicles to the public.
- On July 2019, Tesla started voluntarily releasing annual updated data about vehicle fires as well.
- It should be noted that accident rates among all vehicles on the road can vary from quarter to quarter and can be affected by seasonality, such as reduced daylight and inclement weather conditions.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
