During Tesla’s analyst call on Tuesday after its second-quarter earnings report, Elon Musk faced questions about the carmaker’s aging lineup, the delay of its Robotaxi event, and concerns about the carmaker’s AI chip supply.
Tesla missed earnings estimates while reporting better-than-expected revenue in the quarter. Its adjusted earnings margin also dropped from 18.7% to 14.4% year-over-year as the company executed price cuts in an attempt to drive sales amid a challenging demand environment.
Musk had little to reassure investors on Tuesday night, and those eager to hear details about Tesla’s upcoming vehicles were likely disappointed.
The Tesla CEO confirmed Tesla’s Robotaxi event had been delayed until October 10, but didn’t have much to say on when the first Robotaxi rides on the autonomous service could be expected.
Regulatory approval for the Robotaxi and its unsupervised full self-driving technology will also be a key hurdle for Tesla to overcome. While Musk said he was optimistic Tesla’s self-driving efforts would receive regulatory approval — he said he would be “shocked” if the first Robotaxi ride wasn’t possible next year — he was unable to give a clear timeline and conceded he tended to be optimistic about them. Musk argued regulators would have a “moral obligation” to approve Tesla’s autonomous technology when shown the driving data.
The Tesla CEO also gave vague answers to questions regarding Tesla’s updated Roadster and a next-generation, lower-cost vehicle. Musk said the company would unveil its cheaper EV in the first half of 2025, but failed to give any further specifics about the product — which Tesla has been promising for years.
He also faced some tough questions during the call, including about how he makes resource-allocation decisions between his multiple companies.
Specifically, he was asked about a news report that he had diverted a shipment of Nvidia GPUs originally intended for Tesla to his other ventures, X and xAI. Musk attempted to spin the move as actually beneficial to Tesla, as the carmaker had lacked the infrastructure at the time to use the chips.
But minutes earlier, the Tesla CEO had expressed concern regarding the carmaker’s access to Nvidia’s AI chips in light of the high demand for them amid the AI arms race, adding that Tesla aims to eventually supplement the chips with its Dojo supercomputer, which is still in the process of being built.
One bright spot was Tesla’s energy storage business, which the company revealed set a record during the quarter for profits in the segment. The company also brought in $890 million in revenue from selling regulatory credits to automakers whose fleets didn’t meet emissions requirements — a huge increase over last quarter.
Despite Musk’s optimism that the company would solve autonomy and eventually achieve a $5 trillion valuation, investors appeared unconvinced.
By the time Musk had signed off from the earnings call, the carmaker’s stock had tumbled more than 7% in after-hours trading.
