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Downward DOGE

What's going on with Tesla's share price? It's complicated.

The EV company is facing headwinds from regulators and itself.

6/25/25 11:35AM

Tesla is currently down about 5% today. If that holds, it would be the famously volatile stock’s biggest drop since... the beginning of the month when CEO Elon Musk publicly fell out with President Donald Trump.

Despite what was mostly viewed as a successful robotaxi launch this weekend, which sent shares soaring, the stock is still down 20% this year.

There’s a lot going on right now that could be affecting Tesla’s price. Here are some major considerations:

Today the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association released official data showing that Tesla’s European sales fell for the fifth straight month in May. Sales were down 28% in May even while overall EV sales grew about the same amount. Tesla analysts unofficially knew about the drop earlier this month, but this is just the latest in a series of disappointing sales numbers.
Tesla blog Teslarati posted a video of the human safety driver, who sits in the front passenger seat during robotaxi rides, having to intervene in order to avoid a collision with a UPS truck. The presence of a Tesla employee in the vehicle undercuts the company’s autonomy assertions.
Google’s Waymo launched yesterday in Atlanta, its fifth major market. The size of Waymo’s operation dwarfs Tesla’s. And unlike Tesla’s robotaxi launch, there are no people in the Waymos and the service is open to the public.
It’s also not just Waymo charging into the self-driving space. Last week on a podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “We have some new technology that could just do self-driving for standard cars way better than any current approach has worked.”
Business Insider reported that Tesla Model Ys used as robotaxis are getting hardware upgrades, which might undermine the idea that every Tesla is “capable of being a robotaxi.”
In France, regulators have asked Tesla to stop “deceptive” claims about its vehicles’ self-driving capabilities or face fines. Tesla, of course, has staked its future on autonomy.
The deadline is looming for Tesla’s long-promised and long-awaited “more affordable models,” and they’re nowhere to be seen. Despite Tesla’s autonomous ambitions, its regular vehicles still make up the vast majority of its revenue.

Rani Molla

14h

Meta posts an earnings and revenue beat — and a huge capex bill

The social media giant reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visits U.S. Capitol for Senate meetings

Rani Molla, Nate Becker

14h

Alphabet jumps as Q1 earnings and revenue blow past expectations

The search giant also boosted its capex forecast for the year and said it expects 2027 capex to be “significantly” higher than 2026.

Rani Molla19h

SpaceX filings reportedly show no one can fire Elon Musk except Elon Musk

The only thing stopping Elon Musk from being chairman and CEO of SpaceX is Elon Musk, according to Reuters, which viewed an excerpt of the company’s IPO filing.

The document outlines a dual-class share structure giving Musk control via super-voting stock. The filing says he “can only be removed from our board or these positions by the vote of Class B holders” — shares he’ll control after the listing. It adds that if he keeps those shares, he could “continue to control the election and removal of a majority of our board.”

At a typical public company — even founder-led ones with dual-class structures — a CEO can be fired by the board of directors, which represents shareholders and can vote to remove them over issues such as corporate performance, strategy, or misconduct.

The unusual SpaceX setup means Musk is unlikely to face the kind of CEO succession pressure he’s dealt with at Tesla. Musk, of course, is not a typical CEO, and the value of his companies has long been closely tied to his presence.

To be sure, SpaceX’s confidential IPO filing isn’t in its final form yet — while the filing is still in the confidential phase, the company will be going back and forth with the SEC, which will review it and suggest or require changes.

Exclusive: Only Elon Musk can fire Elon Musk from SpaceX, filing shows

Rani Molla4/28/26

OpenAI’s models are officially coming to Amazon

Amazon is finally getting in on the hottest ticket in tech.

After Microsoft announced yesterday that it has agreed to give up its exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s models, Amazon, as expected, will start offering them to customers — something Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman says users have been asking for “for a really long time.” Some models are available now in preview, and the most powerful GPT versions will show up “in the coming weeks.”

This is a big shift in the AI cloud wars. Microsoft’s early bet on OpenAI gave Azure an edge by locking up the most in-demand models. Now that exclusivity is gone, Amazon and other competitors can finally offer them too, closing a key gap and competing more directly for AI customers.

Amazon Set to Sell OpenAI Tech After Microsoft Cedes Exclusivity

Claire Yubin Oh4/28/26

Ship-tracking app surges as Iran war continues

As Middle East peace talks stretch on, with Tehran reportedly offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade and the war ends, the owner of shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic revealed that the app has gained millions of new users since the conflict began.

MarineTraffic’s user count jumped to 8.5 million this April, up from 3.5 million a year ago, the cofounder of its parent company, Kpler, said in an interview with the Financial Times. Paid subscribers, often workers within companies and governments looking for more data on supply chains and commodities trading, rose 11,000 in the same period.

Kpler, which also owns shipping intelligence platform FleetMon, draws its data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System, satellites, and more than 500 people on-site, like port terminal operators.

Per Appfigures data, MarineTraffic is estimated to have raked in almost $1 million across March and April in app revenue (through April 27), more than double the ~$346,500 from the same months last year. Across the full year, Kpler expects to earn between $300 million and $400 million in annual recurring revenues.