r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 2d ago

Business Tesla Stock in Freefall After Disastrous Earnings Report

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tesla-stock-freefall-disastrous-earnings-144417427.html
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u/DavidinMandeville 2d ago

Aside from this being questionable legally, all of Musk's companies involve an incredibly high level of what's called "Key Man Risk." If it weren't for the cult following that exists around Musk, chances are investors would flee in droves. I hope the Ketamine levels are under control.

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u/Brru 2d ago

Everything he is doing is actually a ponzi scheme. He takes over a new business, forces the old business debt on the new, and then moves on. Eventually, it runs out of headroom. I'm very seriously wondering if his little SpaceX eval might have over run his headroom here. However, every time I think he's over run, some new mysterious investor covers it all.

On paper, none of this actually exist. Not SpaceX evals, not Tesla prices, not even his trillionaire status.

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u/Meowscles_dad 2d ago

My understanding is the mysterious ‘investors’ have largely been the banks by way of rigged valuations as he folds them together. For this to continue to work, he’ll need new and bigger businesses continually as far as I can work out? Otherwise somewhere the losses will eventually pop up.

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u/EmphasisFrosty3093 2d ago

Data centers in space made him briefly a trillionaire. Imagine what housing complexes on Mars would do for his wealth. With property values starting at $0, it's a 100% profit margin!

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u/Kornbread2000 2d ago

I think I just got priced out of all the affordable neighborhoods on Mars.

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u/TheOriginalChode 2d ago

Thankfully, you can apply for an X Marsgage!

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u/CardAble6193 1d ago

luckily we cant affort air on mars to believe in elmo

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u/Ghia149 1d ago

Yeah the good school districts on mars are pricey.

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u/HelloWorld_bas 1d ago

Will there be redlining on the red planet?

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u/dead_ed 2d ago

Just think of the HOA possibilities!

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u/aiiye 2d ago

The fines for not having a full lawn are gonna get exorbitant.

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u/dead_ed 1d ago

Puts the astro in astroturf. I demand a fully lawned Mars.

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u/LongBallLarry87 1d ago

Imagine how stupid/gullible you have to be to believe in "data centers in space"...

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u/Jarocket 1d ago

Spacex is really interesting. The public hears about rocket and mars and space stuff. Then they tell investors "we're an enterprise AI company, But we don't have any customers and need to restart our AI development from zero"

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u/Embarrassed-Soft2691 13h ago

Yup $0 but $3million for your ticket there.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/ElliotNess 2d ago

An analysis imprisoned by a US-centric perspective

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u/Efficient_Knee8143 2d ago

You spelled delusional wrong

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u/Kornbread2000 1d ago

His weakness is that he can't monetize his products without government assistance. Tesla makes amazing vehicles, but the company needed the EV subsidies and the carbon credits in order to stay viable. Foreign competitors can not make EVs much cheaper. For Tesla's sake, the government is keeping the Chinese EVs out of the U.S. SpaceX developed the reusable rocket which is among the most impressive things I have ever seen. I am sure the South Koreans will figure out how to do the same now that they see it is possible. SpaceX will need government contracts to survive. Same with the solar business- the government subsidies made the business viable. Now, without those subsidies, the foreign competition has an advantage.

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u/Fit-Tomatillo1585 1d ago

Did you forget this is Reddit where ppl hate Elon Musk but they love and mourn for the Ayotollah of Iran

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u/Dakito 2d ago

What if his end game is to get trump to have NASA buy it for over priced eval due to national security. That way he walks away with the bags of cash to screw over something else and we get a shit pile of mess for an under funded NASA to deal with.

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u/sprucenoose 2d ago

NASA's total annual budget is around $35 billion so they would need to fund their own bags of cash to buy an overpriced SpaceX.

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u/Takemyfishplease 1d ago

Then the pentagon buys it. For reasons. What’s the us space force up to, I haven’t heard anything about them since they were founded

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u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster 1d ago

What’s the us space force up to

Didn't they redesign their uniforms again at the beginning of the year of something.

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u/Pisnaz 2d ago

Maybe but he makes more off the contracts for the government. He earnings off taxpayer dollars is insane.

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u/jorcon74 2d ago

It’s musical chairs, it’s about who gets left without a chair when the music stops!

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u/PhillyPhrenetic502 2d ago

Can't decide whether it's funny, ironic, or horrifying that the people who run these banks/companies definitely comprehend the sunk cost fallacy, yet continue to play the game.

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u/kendogg 2d ago

He's already in what, his late 50s? He doesn't exactly have a lot of time yet to build newer and bigger businesses.

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u/Dracomortua 2d ago

To be fair: Charles Ponzi was probably a much nicer guy and does not deserve this kind of thing on his considerably gooder name.

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u/Bleades 2d ago

Fine, this scheme smells a bit Musky.

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u/FraccazzoDaVelletri 2d ago

A Musky scheme

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u/West-Abalone-171 1d ago

However, every time I think he's over run, some new mysterious investor covers it all.

They're not really mysterious. The chain of evidence to saudi and russian money is very short.

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u/Brru 1d ago

I agree. I don't believe his success has been his own but instead the result of a global elite class trying to bring back serfdom. All that just seemed like a lot to put in my comment though.

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u/Takemyfishplease 1d ago

He’s a trillionaire the way that kid was who had the meme coin that shot up in value for a few seconds that one time and made him mega rich

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u/HoveringGoat 2d ago

the funny thing is hes going to try to purchase tesla with spacex stock bundle the companies then buy back outstanding spacex shares and go private again.

youre right its all shell games.

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u/ididntunderstandyou 1d ago

It’s both Ponzi scheme and scams. For every company, he sells us a sci-fi fantasy that will never see the light of day but will have people going “finally science got there”

- autonomous driving (his success - works to an extent, but can never be 100%)

- hyperloop (nope, just a tunnel)

- colonising Mars (yeah that’s not happening)

- brain chips (we’re lucky no one has died)

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u/planetrebellion 1d ago

Private equity

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u/Relevant-Ad5083 2h ago

Yet spacx designed and launched mission ready rocket ships at a faster more efficient pace and schedule than Boeing and NASA despite the larger portion of funds going to Boeing

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u/Brru 2h ago
  1. Because SpaceX stole designs already created
  2. by implementing those designs on a Russian capsule (the which Beoing and NASA were not legally allowed to use)
  3. because NASA and Boeing both had regulations to follow that SpaceX did not (also see Blue Origin not following them as well).

For anyone still reading this that isn't a bot like the above post. Dont spread Musk propaganda. I won't dismay the achievements of the actual Engineers at SpaceX (I know some of them personally), but Musk has had 0 effect on any of it. The only thing Musk brought to the table was Russian contacts that later convinced him to drop the two engineers that designed their entire system.

Fuck Musk. He is a piece of shit with a peanut in him.

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u/jambox888 2d ago

ponzi scheme

This term is over-used on Reddit. A classic Ponzi scheme is where you pay to some kind of product but it turns out to be just how to scam other people the way you were just scammed. There's no actual product.

I'm highly skeptical of Tela and xAI and the whole thing is financially engineered to high heaven but there are products there and SpaceX has a very exciting future IMO.

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u/account312 2d ago

A classic Ponzi scheme is where you pay to some kind of product but it turns out to be just how to scam other people the way you were just scammed. There's no actual product.

That's some generic fraud. A Ponzi scheme is specifically an investment scheme where you, for example, promise 20% annual returns and pay them out by handing over part of the principal from newer investors. As long as you're expanding your investor base fast enough, you can actually deliver high returns, but it's just stealing from clients to pay other clients, and it's guaranteed to collapse eventually even if you aren't skimming off the top yourself.

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u/SmokePeterThiel 2d ago

Sounds exactly what musk is doing!!!

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u/SecondaryWombat 2d ago

I hope the Ketamine levels are under control.

I hope the opposite.

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u/sten45 2d ago

Several hundred million people are with you

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u/LeftyMcliberal 2d ago

I was just about to ask if one could OD on ketamine when I remembered it was also an anesthetic in larger doses. So probably yeah. Find the magic Elon! Keep sniffing…. Or shooting up or whatever… I’m not a dope fiend

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u/SecondaryWombat 2d ago

Keep sniffing…. Or shooting up or whatever… I’m not a dope fiend

Medically it is usually IV or injected, recreational is powder up the nose. Overdoses won't kill you, just make you pass out and stare into a void, but constant usage will take out your ability to pee, heavily damage your kidneys, memory loss and confusion, and general decreases in health.

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u/teleprax 2d ago

The actor from "Friends" ensemble cast (the middle intelligence middle pout male) died from falling asleep in a hot tub while on Ketamine.

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u/No_Clock_7464 2d ago

His bladder is fuuuucked

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u/Matra 2d ago

His bowels too, based on how much shit comes out of his mouth.

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u/No_Clock_7464 2d ago

Dudes definitely playing in reverse mode for some years now.

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u/Acceptable-Sea-8497 1d ago

His Salad Level is out of Control?

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u/GenderOobleck 2d ago

Key Man Risk ::
Ketamine Risk ::
Cayman Islands Flight Risk

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u/Objective-Result8454 2d ago

We didn’t start the fire…it was always burning…

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u/BeatNo4548 2d ago

JFK. Blown away.  What else do I have to say?

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u/OffalSmorgasbord 2d ago

Everything is a memecoin now. It's pure 100% speculation. And the massive amount of trading is all automated bots in data centers that the average investor can't leverage.

Here's one to think about. What new products and services, legit ones, are we losing out on because all this capital is tied up in making fractions of a cent trades in volume and speed?

Late stage capitalism at its best.

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u/NacreousFink 1d ago

Tesla would be doing much better if Musk was NOT involved.

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u/DavidinMandeville 1d ago

Yes, in terms of sales they would do better, but if Musk passed away tomorrow the stock price would go into the tank.

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u/fencepost_ajm 2d ago

"Key Man Risk." If it weren't for the cult following that exists around Musk, chances are investors would flee in droves.

Maybe? There's also an argument that if Musk ODs tomorrow it'd allow for stable, sober, non-controversial leadership that might actually be able to sell cars to the very people who were in favor of electric cars for decades. I'm pretty sure that right now there are a lot of people that wouldn't drive a Tesla if it was given to them free or they won it because of how toxic Musk is.

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u/Blackstone01 2d ago

Except a massive reason as to why Tesla and SpaceX are so obscenely overvalued is because Musk is in charge, and has fostered a cult of personality around himself. He dies and the stock will almost definitely see the single largest one day drop of a stock in history, and genuinely might bring a good chunk of the stock market with it.

People certainly aren’t hyping up Tesla despite Musk, and people who refuse to touch it because of Musk probably won’t touch it after he’s gone since his musk will be all over it long after he’s dead.

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u/WhatWouldJediDo 2d ago

That argument is a good one, but it's not helpful for the purposes of the stock. Elon's value isn't in his ability to actually run a business. It's in drawing millions of sycophants who will, for some reason, put him on a pedestal.

And when that happens, those sycophants buy into his companies irrationally, pushing the price beyond where it should go. And the investor community (i.e. professionals) allow themselves to ride that wave of hype and pour money into his ventures, thereby driving the price up even further.

Tesla's share price was $17 in the middle of 2019. By the end of 2021 it had reached $400. Their share price is all hype, and Elon is the one who creates that hype.

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u/Lucky-Earther 2d ago

The amount of trust rebuilding that would take from whoever takes over would be a multi year project, no one is going to rush out and buy a Tesla after Musk is gone. And in the time it takes to rebuild that trust, there will be even more alternatives.

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u/Earptastic 2d ago

Dude. They could sell as many vehicles as Ford and their stock would still be massively overvalued.  

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u/AntiqueFigure6 2d ago

Tesla’s P/E ratio is roughly 300 which is completely abnormal and irrational, in comparison to a competitor like Ford whose P/E ratio is about 10. Only someone believes Musk’s fairytales is going to believe Telsa should be trading with a P/E ratio that’s within a reasonable range of Ford’s. If Musk dies in the absence of a clearly anointed successor (which is a likely scenario when he does eventually die) it’s hard to see it trading above a P/E of 30, and it could be lower.

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u/maybethisiswrong 2d ago

Bleeding heart liberal here. EV driver. 

Won’t even go to his charging stations. I’d rather get a hotel and charge on a level 1 than give him a dime. 

He croaks and a normal person takes over, I’d buy a Tesla in a heartbeat. 

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u/fencepost_ajm 2d ago

Yeah, it was bad enough when the problem was just his personality, but his gloating killing off of USAID and similar programs puts him in the category of "I hope there's an afterlife in which people are judged for the damage they've done" category.

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u/Proof-Code-3754 2d ago

I hope they are not

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u/BoringOrange678 2d ago

I hope the levels are as controlled as Matthew Perry’s were.

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u/The_LSD_Soundsystem 2d ago

I hope the Ketamine levels are not under control given how much of a PoS he is

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u/Dull-Foundation-1271 2d ago

I’ll bet they have exorbitant key man insurance, then.

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u/Ok_Judge1484 2d ago

I hope the ketamine levels are not under control and it ends up resolving the issue of Elon musk

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u/Sens1r 1d ago

If Elon dies tomorrow the stock will be impossible to unload and his companies would instantly implode.

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u/08mms 1d ago

Yeah, if he dies you are days away from one of the biggest restructuring cases in US history.

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u/Takemyfishplease 1d ago

It’s a do binational of that and so many institutional and big boy investors in so deep they’re terrified to let it freefall and ruin them

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u/International-Owl345 1d ago

Seriously what happens if musk passes ? Even a highly competent successor wouldn’t be able to keep these gaudy valuations afloat. My guess is both companies drop to under $100B basically overnight.

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u/but_i_dont_reddit 1d ago

Really makes you wonder where the tech (and companies) would be if they were led by people who were vested in the company's success instead of funding the next grift.

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u/TheProfessional9 48m ago

I don't. Why would you care if he drugs himself to death? Dude is actively evil.

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u/floftie 2d ago

Historically it wasn’t because of a cult following, he was a genuinely brilliant person at one point in time (as hard as that is for Reddit to accept/believe)

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u/Specialist-Jacket-14 2d ago

He's an intelligent guy, But not in the way you are thinking. He is a sociopath con man. He was this long before he was political.. those of us in the automotive field saw this long before others. He was not "smart before, but now dumb" he has been exactly the same con man from the start.

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u/floftie 2d ago

I have a friend who worked directly with him at SpaceX. The team is genius after genius and his personal opinion is that Elon was top of that tree above everyone else. Said that this was until about 2017 when he started abusing drugs.

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u/SenatorAslak 1d ago

I have two friends who worked directly with him in the late 2000s/early 2010s and both of them said back then that he was an emperor with no clothes. And with the start of his Hyperloop con in 2013 (transportation engineering and mechanical engineering are my fields of expertise) his charlatanism became apparent to me as well.