Protestors at a Tesla dealership in New York (Leonardo Munoz/Getty Images)

JPM analysts struggle to understand why Elon Musk is destroying Tesla’s brand

“Mr. Musk’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency has proven controversial.”

3/12/25 11:53AM

JPMorgan’s Tesla analysts joined the parade of Wall Street observers axing forecasts for Tesla vehicle sales Wednesday, reducing their full-year 2025 estimate for deliveries 11% from 1.994 million to just 1.775 million. That would be a year-over-year decline of 1%.

But the more interesting part of the note is the palpable befuddlement the analysts express about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s behavior, which has generated fury from key constituencies worldwide. In the US, the company’s core consumers are enraged by his work as an agent of the Trump administration’s legally murky campaign to disrupt the federal civil service. Meanwhile, his flirtation with far-right European politics and comments on Ukraine have enraged consumers in Europe. JPM analysts write:

“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly, with perhaps the closest example being the decline in sales of Japanese and Korean brand vehicles in China in 2012 and 2017, respectively, amidst various diplomatic disputes (Japanese brand sales recovered after a year, while Korean brand sales never have), although the damage in that case was confined to a single market, whereas the decline in Tesla sales in 2025 is not specific to any one nation or geography.”

Citing polling data, they write that Musk’s immersion in Trumpist politics is a problem in the US:

“While views toward Mr. Musk have increased and decreased in roughly equal parts amongst Republicans and Democrats, respectively, resulting in the Tesla brand being viewed just as positively by Trump voters (+18 ppts) as it is negatively by Harris voters (-18 ppts), it is Democrats who are more open to purchasing EVs.”

Meanwhile, on the continent...

“Tesla sales in Europe are under far greater pressure than at home as a consequence of statements by Mr. Musk pertaining to the war in Ukraine, U.S. participation in NATO, and far-right political parties.”

While some of those issues may have played into the more than 50% drop in Tesla’s share price since its December peak, retail sentiment, rather than business fundamentals, drives Tesla’s share price. And today, following the softer-than-expected inflation report, the vibes for Tesla and other Trump-related trades are good.

Luke Kawa

The threat of AI disruption has dawned on the bond market

22V Research economist Peter Williams noted that medium-term rate expectations have disconnected from recent encouraging labor market data.

Hyunsoo Rim1h

Michael Burry flags “troubling” jump in Nvidia’s supply commitments

“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry — famous for betting against the 2008 housing bubble — just warned of a major risk in Nvidia’s latest annual report, pointing to a sixfold surge in purchase obligations over the past year.

In a Substack post Thursday, Burry called the increase from $16.1 billion to $95.2 billion in just 12 months “troubling,” noting that Nvidia has been forced to place noncancelable purchase orders well before knowing the final demand for its AI chips. The surge is partly tied to supplier TSMC requiring longer-term contracts, he added.

'Big Short' Michael Burry warns Nvidia is taking on risk that could be 'catastrophic'

Matt Phillips3h

Vistra beats Q4 earnings expectations for adjusted EBITDA, but dips on income decline

Power provider Vistra, a key player in the AI energy trade, reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings results early Thursday, but shares dipped in early trading as Q4 net income dropped.

The Texas-based company, which supplies nuclear- and natural gas-fueled power to wholesale and retail markets, reported:

Net income of $233 million, a decline of 52% from Q4 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA from ongoing operations of $1.74 billion vs. the $1.71 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.
Vistra maintained previously issued guidance for full-year EBITDA from ongoing operations and adjusted free cash flow from ongoing operations.

Vistra shares soared 258% in 2024 amid a flurry of excitement over the AI energy boom. Last year was more muted, with the stock rising 17%. So far in 2026, shares were up roughly 9% before the report.

Vistra beats fourth-quarter core profit estimates on AI-driven power demand

Net income of $233 million, a decline of 52% from Q4 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA from ongoing operations of $1.74 billion vs. the $1.71 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.
Vistra maintained previously issued guidance for full-year EBITDA from ongoing operations and adjusted free cash flow from ongoing operations.

Luke Kawa

Why Nvidia’s terrific quarter is getting a terrible reaction

Nvidia’s CEO gave a deeply unsatisfying answer about his biggest customers’ ability to generate cash. But they might be investing more in AI GPUs in 2027 anyway.

Jensen Huang in front of Vera Rubin at CES 2026

Claire Yubin Oh5h

Sandisk rises on partnership with SK Hynix to standardize memory chip architecture tailored for AI data centers

Sandisk is up 3% in premarket trading on Thursday after it began its global standardization strategy of high-bandwidth flash (HBF) memory solutions with SK Hynix.

SK Hynix commented in a press release on Thursday that “by making HBF an industry standard, together with Sandisk, we will lay the foundation for the entire AI ecosystem to grow together,” adding that the companies will set up a dedicated workstream to work on the standardization under the Open Compute Project, the world’s largest organization dealing with data center technologies.

First debuted last February, Sandisk’s HBF technology lies in between ultrafast high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-capacity SSDs. That is, these have more storage capacity than HBMs, but are still fast enough to be utilized in AI inferencing (albeit not as quick as HBM).

Sandisk has previously argued that this hybrid architecture is central to AI services that need user applications but require a significant amount of fast interconnect between GPUs. The latest announcement also notes that HBF technology is expected to be more cost-efficient compared to alternatives of similar scale.

The launch, which was shared in an kickoff event on Thursday evening, starts SK Hynix and Sandisk’s workflow, which was announced when the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding “to standardize the specification, define technology requirements and explore the creation of a technology ecosystem” last August, per Sandisk’s press release at the time. Ultimately, by collaborating with SK Hynix, one of the three key HBM suppliers, to standardize and commercialize the technology, Sandisk is manufacturing somewhat of a first-mover advantage to offer the system-level “AI-optimized memory architecture” required for AI inference markets, rather than focusing on the performance of a single chip element.