Big night for Tesla, and a slow news day for pretty much everyone else. Here's what to know before the results land.
Tesla reports tonight after the US market closes, with a webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET. Analysts expect a profit a little below last year's, and deliveries already showed why: the company sold slightly fewer cars than a year ago, though more than forecasters feared. Our earnings preview has more on what to listen for.
Musk says a Tesla and SpaceX merger would be a good idea. Asked directly on SpaceX's earnings call, he said: "Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes." He then added that assuming a merger is a certainty "would be overstating it". Both companies have formed special committees at shareholders' request, and Musk sits on neither because of his conflicts of interest. He called it "an odd kabuki dance where two groups of people are talking and I can't be in the conversation". The committees have not agreed on terms. That's a long way from a deal.
Any merger would need a lot of people to say yes. Musk himself pointed out that Tesla would need a vote of 50% of all outstanding shares, not just the shares that are cast, which he called "quite a high hurdle". Tech Times adds a formal board process, regulatory review and SEC filings to the list. So don't plan your life around it.
Cybercab is on the road in Austin, but not in huge numbers. Tesla has registered nearly 350 of them with Texas. The state's public registry listed 319 as of October 9, though it only lists vehicle numbers and doesn't show which cars are carrying riders. The crowdsourced RobotaxiTracker sees about half that many actually running. Treat the tracker as an outside estimate, not a Tesla figure. Electrek's September look at the same data found far fewer cars carrying passengers than were registered, so the gap is real. A federal investigation is also still hanging over the rollout.
The bill for all this is steep. Bloomberg estimates compiled by the financial news site Invezz put Tesla's spending next year above $25 billion, and the company arranged $30 billion in credit and loans last month. CFO Vaibhav Taneja has said capital spending "will grow for the next two or three years". Some of it goes to Terafab, a chip plant at Gigafactory Texas that Musk has tied to Optimus, and we've covered the robot in everything you need to know about Optimus.
The thing to watch tonight is margins. Analysts want to see whether Tesla can hold them without leaning on regulatory credits, and one investor noted the company has missed estimates four quarters running.
That's wattsup, and here's wattsnext: PHP maintainers warn of two critical patches landing imminently
Sources
- 1.Tesla earnings: margins, Cybercab, Optimus in focus as SpaceX merger talks intensify · Invezz
- 2.Tesla earnings: margins, Cybercab, Optimus in focus as SpaceX merger talks intensify · Invezz
- 3.Tesla earnings: margins, Cybercab, Optimus in focus as SpaceX merger talks intensify · Invezz
- 4.Tesla and SpaceX Just Formed Special Committees to Weigh a Merger · 24/7 Wall St.
- 5.Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for · Teslarati
- 6.Texas's Robotaxi Registry Just Got a Lot More Gold · Tesla North
- 7.Tesla's active robotaxi fleet in Austin crashes back to 8 vehicles after Cybercab pump · Electrek
Reported by the WattsUpNext desk from the sources linked below. Spot an error? Tell us at corrections@wattsupnext.com.
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