Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[spacerfc]

Anyone have thoughts on what this could mean for DOJO? I would have thought this would have been a great opportunity for tesla to sell access to twitter rather than twitter buying a boatload of GPUs?

Dojo maxed out training for tesla? Or dojo not working well enough that musk has confidence that Twitter could make use of it?

Most likely it still doesn't have enough capacity (and won't have it for a while) to support additional uses.

Although I wouldn't rule out that Tesla is working on its own LLM, some friendly competition like SpaceX originally had two teams building Starship prototypes in two locations.

 

[Cosmacelf]

FYI Elon is talking live, being interviewed by the BBC on Twitter spaces right now.

Very hostile interview, Elon is dueling well.

 

[Ogre]

Another note. I know many of you may not want to hear this. I'm very doubtful that we'll get the kind of gigantic stock movements, macro crash/bounce aside, that we've gotten in the past. I do think this company gets to $10T some day for sure but I'm not expecting any ~40% up weeks anymore. Well, at least until the next bubble in 15 years or so. lol Don't use margin and be happy the stock is low so you can buy and hold more of it. IMHO Burnt Hair meaning the stock is going to shoot up is nonsense and honestly is not something I'd like to see. Give me that slow rise please.

I am skeptical we’re going to see a big move as well. Thus I put my edit on the post suggesting it would not nothing other than just the literal perfume/ whatever launching.

I just find Musk harping on it weird. And he has definitely hinted it is more. I’m not setting my expectations at some weird level. Maybe we have to wait until December 9th before it all makes sense.

 

[StarFoxisDown!]

Giga Shanghai had record Y production in March.

Total production was 88k

 

[MikeC]

Very hostile interview, Elon is dueling well.

Elon just said something like, "Tesla is certainly buying GPUs...there's a lot of synergies with Dojo."

WholeMarsBlog had asked him about the report of Twitter buying 10k GPUs.

 

[Singuy]

Musk said Twitter is now at break even, so no more cash bleed and another bear thesis bites the dust.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Cosmacelf]

Elon just said something like, "Tesla is certainly buying GPUs...there's a lot of synergies with Dojo."

WholeMarsBlog had asked him about the report of Twitter buying 10k GPUs.

Yeah, that was an interesting exchange. So, confirmation that Twitter has a deep AI project in the works. To do … well, we don’t know, Elon didn’t say. Let the speculation begin!

 

[Cosmacelf]

Musk said Twitter is now at break even, so no more cash bleed and another bear thesis bites the dust.

MSN

www.msn.com

Correct, and that includes debt service. The full story is that Twitter was being run cash break even before Elon bought it. As he was buying it, there was an Internet ad crash, and then many advertisers did leave Twitter (although they are now returning), so that made a $1.5B yearly loss. Then add in $1.5B yearly debt service, so Twitter was facing $3B in cash loss, with $1B in the bank. Ie 4 months to live assuming Elon didn’t sell even more Tesla stock. So Elon riffed like 80% of the workforce, and made a bunch of other cost savings moves (like pairing three data centers down to two). Anyways, Twitter might be back to break even this quarter.

 

[MC3OZ]

Yeah, that was an interesting exchange. So, confirmation that Twitter has a deep AI project in the works. To do … well, we don’t know, Elon didn’t say. Let the speculation begin!

Might be simply providing an alternative to ChatGPT, and providing a good search engine to allow people to search Twitter.

I expect to one day have the Twitter App in every Tesla Not sure how useful that will be, but AI may make it more useful.,

 

[Mike Smith]

That's the first time I can remember an interviewer walking out on his own interview. I can't wait to see the video, apparently they're packing up their gear around Elon while he just keeps taking questions from listeners.

 

[Oveeus]

I have been reading a lot of fuzz about Tesla's needs for ads.

The more I think about it, the less it makes sense.

Don't get me wrong, I am actually in the camp of Tesla doing some informercial to promote EV and killing some FUDs.
However, I don't think ads are an effective way to spend money right now.

Before they spend a few hundred million on a marketing budget, they can spend that on smaller Gigas (Megas?!) to serve some specific markets where tariff makes EVs very expensive. From an investor perspective, I think it makes more sense. Tesla has more demand than what it can cater. The only people not buying Tesla is because it's not within their budget.

Yes, I get that Model Y/3 are now either in line or below the average selling price of a vehicle. But we need to see the bigger picture. It's not about just those "rich" in highly developed economies like US/CA/EU/CN... etc. It's about those who need/want a car but can't afford a Tesla. If there's a Tesla in 2x,000 or even 1x,000 range, it will cater to an entirely different market segment.

Put it into a perspective, everyone would love to have a Rolex... but it's Casio and Swatch that sell the most watches. Heck... even a no-name watch factory in China probably ships more watch that PP and Rolex combined.

And as for bringing more awareness... seriously... Elon dropped 44 billion to buy Twitter. If that's not big enough of an advertisement expense and brand awareness, I don't know what is. Tesla is synonymous to EVs. And everyone who uses Twitter, who became aware that Elon bought Twitter, will surely know or become aware about Tesla.

 

[Electroman]

That's the first time I can remember an interviewer walking out on his own interview. I can't wait to see the video, apparently they're packing up their gear around Elon while he just keeps taking questions from listeners.

Elon & Twitter

 

[Olle]

I'd rather get a well-used ICE, drive it for 2-3 years, and then buy a Tesla. During this time, I bet a new Tesla would be going down in value more than my used ICE would.

I'd rather buy a well used CRT

than an flatscreen for 2-3 years. Jokes aside. Does anybody remember the resale value of those once flatscreen hit 50% market share. Hint: not very much.

But in absolute value depending on what ICE you are talking, you might be correct. Let's say you buy an ICE for $15k that goes to $0 in three years that's less than a Tesla for $50k that goes to $30k. Fuel, maintenance and repairs could skew the equation though.

Teslas are still expensive,

Are they? Then why are you advocating for increasing their price through advertising?

Imagine if instead of cutting prices Tesla starts a small marketing department.

So instead of cutting say $1k on the price of every car, at a cost of $2B/year on 2M units sold.

 

[Tes La Ferrari]

Tesla Powerwall price drop rolls out in Australia again

Tesla dropped the price of its Powerwall in Australia--for the second time this year-- making it more affordable than ever.

www.teslarati.com

TLDR: in Australia,“the company reduced the price of its home battery storage option by $1,699. Tesla’s Powerwall price drop took effect on April 11, 2023. As of this writing, Tesla’s Powerwall costs $12,900, down from $14,599.”

My thoughts / synopsis: cell production looks to be flowing rather freely.

 

[Buckminster]

Very hostile interview, Elon is dueling well.

Whole interview:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1646002378003365888

This is the BBC write-up:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-65247272/page/3

 

[Buckminster]

Topics covered above although I haven't copied across.
Tesla HVAC For heat pump (burnt hair?) product speculation
Need for Tesla Advertising / PR
Project Dojo - the SaaS Product?

 

[cliff harris]

If Tesla want to get some more easy revenue from FSD, they just need to talk to the EU and get the frankly insane restrictions on FSD and autopilot removed. My FSD-enabled model Y cuts out due to EU regs, when taking tight turns, because apparently thats now allowed (yes, even post-brexit).
A lot of places in Europe have bad traffic, and a lot of it, and would be an easy sell for FSD if it actually had anything close to what US cars get. The hardware is there, the software is written, they just have to put the hours in with meeting EU bureaucrats.

I don't think there are public take-rate splits for FSD between EU and US, but I do know that the general advice on forums for getting FSD as an option in the UK is 'its a waste of money right now'.
I got it anyway

 

[Atomsla]

they just need to talk to the EU and get the frankly insane restrictions on FSD and autopilot removed

Well, if its as easy as that, why don't they just go ahead and do it?!?!
I do find myself wondering every so often how long cars (in general) in the US will be self driving before the EU will allow any version of it on the roads. Could be a while, but I'd be cool with being surprised on that front.

 

[Artful Dodger]

US banks to set aside reserves after shoring up First Republic, sources say

US banks to set aside reserves after shoring up First Republic, sources say

Banks that contributed the bulk of $30 billion in deposits to First Republic Bank plan to set aside about $100 million each in first-quarter earnings in case of potential losses, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

www.reuters.com

 

[Cult Member]

Well, if its as easy as that, why don't they just go ahead and do it?!?!
I do find myself wondering every so often how long cars (in general) in the US will be self driving before the EU will allow any version of it on the roads. Could be a while, but I'd be cool with being surprised on that front.

The EU will allow FSD as soon as VW, Mercedes, BMW and Audi offer something similar. Ergo: Never.
I hope they will find a way to get a license and the hardware from Tesla sometimes to save their business. Nah, they won't be on the market anymore or bought by Chinese companies.