New Tesla Model 3 With Full Self-Driving Activated

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After a record quarter, analysts point out that Tesla’s car sales don’t really matter anymore

Tell that to Apple and its iPhone.

10/23/25 4:00PM

Tesla currently makes 75% of its revenue — which reached a record last quarter — from electric vehicle sales, but increasingly analysts say that doesn’t matter. In other words, they’re buying what CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly said Tesla isn’t a car company but rather an autonomous and AI company, is selling.

Truist’s William Stein says Tesla’s auto delivery data and earnings are “decreasingly” relevant to its stock price.

“Most of the value of the shares is tied up in AI projects including (full self-driving), robotaxi, and especially Optimus,” Stein wrote. “All of the AI projects are at once quite unproven (close to zero revenue), and potentially extremely valuable.”

Barclays analyst Dan Levy, who has long argued that Tesla’s stock price is divorced from fundamentals and who has a price target for the stock at $350 (it’s currently trading at $445), says investors got the memo.

“Tesla missed on 3Q EPS, but it doesn’t matter. Because what is increasingly clear and understood is that the auto business is not the future emphasis for Tesla. Rather the focus ahead remains on Tesla’s growth endeavors in AI — autonomous and robots.”

Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives is perhaps the biggest proponent of this narrative. From a pre-earnings note:

“The earnings/guidance on Wed are clearly important but take a backseat to the broader and important AI initiatives at Tesla. We continue to strongly believe the most important chapter in Tesla’s growth story is now beginning with the AI era now here. It starts with autonomous then robotics as we believe the autonomous valuation is worth $1 trillion alone to the Tesla story over the next few years that will start to get unlocked over the coming months.”

Tesla has long been a company that doesn’t trade on fundamentals. But that doesn’t mean car sales, which are currently integral to its top and bottom lines, are unimportant. Apple’s iPhone represents about half the company’s revenue, but Apple is still very much the “iPhone maker.” And, at least for now, Tesla is still a car company.

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Report: Some of Meta’s new AI models will eventually be open-source

Axios reports that Meta is close to releasing its first new AI models after setting up its “superintelligence” team led by former Scale.AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and some of the models will eventually be released with an open-source license.

Per the report, Meta sees an opportunity to focus on consumers, rather than the lucrative enterprise market that both OpenAI and Anthropic have been focusing on.

Meta had previously embraced open-source AI with its Llama models, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing a manifesto declaring open-source AI as “the path forward.” Axios says that Meta will be pursuing more of a hybrid strategy of proprietary and open-source models going forward.

The New York Times previously reported that Meta was delaying the launch of its new AI model because of performance issues.

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OpenAI’s plan for an AGI world: AI for all and a 4-day workweek

The company’s policy paper calls for a new social contract that includes AI at the center of everything, which could lower costs and create cures for diseases, but also warned it may upend the public safety net.

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🏠 $2.15M

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The median price for a house in San Francisco is now $2.15 million, jumping 18% from last year. The AI startup boom is pushing what was already one of the most expensive housing markets to dizzying new heights. The median price for condos in the city jumped 27% to reach $1.36 million, according to data from Compass, reported by Bloomberg.

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Report: OpenAI on track to burn $85 billion in 2028, expects profitability by 2030

Anthropic and OpenAI are racing to go public this year, and all eyes are on how long they can sustain burning billions in cash before they achieve something that looks like a viable business.

Investors have seen both companies’ projections, and there’s no sign of slowing down, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI expects to burn tens of billions per year for the rest of the decade, peaking at $85 billion in 2028, before achieving profitability in 2030, per the report.

Anthropic will also continue to burn cash for years — far less than OpenAI — but it projects that 2026 will be its biggest year of losses. It targets 2029 for profitability, fueled by exploding enterprise revenue.

An Inside Look at OpenAI and Anthropic’s Finances Ahead of Their IPOs

OpenAI expects to burn tens of billions per year for the rest of the decade, peaking at $85 billion in 2028, before achieving profitability in 2030, per the report.

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Big batteries are the newest answer to Big Tech’s big energy needs

America’s booming energy demand is creating a powerful case for large-scale energy storage.

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