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Guy waving an American flag in a tiny Tesla Cybertruck
A person waving a US flag drives a toy Tesla Cybertruck (Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)

Tesla delivery numbers are out this week. Analysts think it will be a bloodbath.

Analysts on average are expecting Tesla’s biggest year-over-year quarterly decline ever.

Tesla is reporting its Q2 deliveries Wednesday — and judging from leading indicators and analyst estimates, it’s not looking good for the electric car maker. Monthly sales have been dropping across Tesla’s biggest markets, including the US, China and Europe, as the company contends with its CEO’s political fallout, increased competition and an aging lineup of cars. The company’s mostly successful robotaxi launch last week isn’t likely to move the needle on vehicle sales, which make up the lion’s share of Tesla’s revenue. After all, the launch only includes 10 to 20 sort-of autonomous cars whose technology is not yet available on the wider Tesla fleet.

Last year, Tesla delivered 444,000 cars in Q2. After lowering their estimates throughout the quarter this year, analysts think Q2 2025 will look much worse.

  • Bloomberg currently pegs the analyst consensus at 391,000, 12% lower than last year.

  • FactSet’s consensus estimate is 387,000, 13% lower.

  • JPMorgan’s Ryan Brinkman said today he’s lowered the estimate he made around the time of Q1 earnings from 395,000 to an even lower 360,000, 19% below last year.

  • An analyst who goes by Troy Teslike and is often correct on these matters has continually lowered his estimate over the quarter, having started at 412,000 and now revised it down to 355,000, which would be 20% lower than last year.

That’s a spread of 53,000 to 89,000 fewer Teslas sold in Q2 2025 vs Q2 2024 — all of which would represent Tesla’s biggest quarterly decline ever.

Of course, terrible sales in the second quarter, following terrible sales in the first quarter, doesn’t bode well for the full year. Considering that the government will likely take away federal $7,500 EV tax credits, hurting demand, the back half of the year could be worse.

Analysts expect Tesla’s full-year sales to decline for the second year in a row, with the FactSet consensus currently reflecting a 6% drop for 2025 compared to 2024. On average, they expect Tesla will sell 1.68 million cars this year, down from 1.79 million last year. The company sold 1.81 million in 2023.

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Rather than fully cracking down on scam ads, Meta worked to make them harder to find

In its latest piece on Meta’s scam ads, Reuters found that the social media giant didn’t just remove fraudulent ads from its platforms — it also worked to make them harder for governments and journalists to find.

Fearing that Japanese regulators would require universal advertiser verification — a measure Meta estimated would cost roughly $2 billion to implement and potentially reduce its revenue by nearly 5% — the company took steps to make scam ads less “discoverable” to “regulators, investigators and journalists,” according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.

“So successful was the search-result cleanup that Meta, the documents show, added the tactic to a ‘general global playbook’ it has deployed against regulatory scrutiny in other markets, including the United States, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and Thailand,” Reuters wrote.

Previous Reuters reporting found Meta internally projected that about 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads tied to scams and banned goods, though the company later said that estimate was overly broad. Reuters also reported the rate was double in China.

“So successful was the search-result cleanup that Meta, the documents show, added the tactic to a ‘general global playbook’ it has deployed against regulatory scrutiny in other markets, including the United States, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and Thailand,” Reuters wrote.

Previous Reuters reporting found Meta internally projected that about 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads tied to scams and banned goods, though the company later said that estimate was overly broad. Reuters also reported the rate was double in China.

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Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who called Tesla “ridiculously overvalued,” is not currently shorting Tesla

Earlier this month, “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry said Tesla has been “ridiculously overvalued” for “a good long time” — and reiterated that message in a post on X on Tuesday. But the once prominent Tesla short seller isn’t currently betting against the stock.

Asked directly whether he would short Tesla now, Burry replied simply: “I am not short.”

Tesla is expected to report a double-digit decline in fourth-quarter deliveries this week.

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Rani Molla

SoftBank becomes OpenAI’s biggest backer after fully funding $40 billion investment

SoftBank has fully funded its $40 billion investment in OpenAI, overtaking Microsoft as the company’s largest financial backer, CNBC reports. The deal was contingent on OpenAI transitioning to a for-profit public benefit corporation, which it did in September.

However, longtime partner Microsoft retains substantial influence over OpenAI with its roughly $13 billion investment, which translates to a stake worth about 27% of the startup’s valuation — which has been cited as high as $830 billion — as well as exclusive cloud and commercial licensing rights tied to Azure.

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Rani Molla

Tesla-compiled estimates show Q4 deliveries expected to fall 15% from last year

A Tesla-compiled average of analyst estimates pegs fourth-quarter deliveries at 422,850, which would mark a 15% slump from the 495,570 the company delivered in the same quarter last year, if realized. The full-year estimate of 1.6 million vehicles would represent an 8% decline from 2024 and the second annual decline for the EV company. The estimates are notably lower than the consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg and FactSet, which have been declining over the past month.

The market-implied odds derived from event contracts show that most traders think Tesla deliveries will be more than 410,000 but less than 420,000 in the quarter ending December.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

While Tesla typically shares its compilation of analyst estimates with institutional investors, this is the first time the company has shared those numbers on its own website. Tesla’s numbers include estimates from Daiwa, DB, Wedbush, OpCo, Canaccord, Baird, Wolfe, Exane, GS, RBC, Evercore ISI, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Jefferies, Needham & Co., HSBC, Cantor Fitzgerald, and William Blair.

Actual numbers are expected Friday.

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Rani Molla

Cybertruck battery material supplier writes down Tesla deal by 99%

South Korea’s L&F Co., a supplier of battery material for Tesla’s “apocalypse-proof” Cybertruck, has written down the value of its Tesla contract by more than 99%, Bloomberg reports — another sign that Cybertruck sales are faltering.

The company cited changes in supply quantities, slashing a contract valued at nearly $3 billion in 2023 to about $7,000 now.

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