Tesla store in Berlin-Reinickendorf smeared with blue paint

Activists have smeared the facade of the Tesla store in Berlin-Reinickendorf with blue paint in March (Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

What Tesla investors want to know from Elon Musk during tomorrow’s earnings report

Investors have a lot of questions about Tesla’s timelines and tariffs.

Rani Molla

4/21/25 1:34PM

Tesla reports its first-quarter earnings after the bell tomorrow and investors have a lot of questions about the future of the company, which has been among the worst-performing in the S&P 500 this year.

The FactSet analyst consensus estimates call for earnings per share of $0.41 and revenue of $21.345 billion, up slightly from the $21.301 Tesla reported in Q1 of last year. Both of those estimates have been trending downward since the start of the year, as delivery numbers released earlier this month came in way worse than expected and as the brand’s popularity sank to new lows. Meanwhile, the stock is down more than 40% this year and more than 7% just today.

As Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has written, Tesla is going to have to make a lot of major changes — including CEO Elon Musk stepping down from his position at the Department of Government Efficiency — to turn things around.

Based on a survey of the most upvoted questions shareholders posted on the company’s investor relations website, Tesla investors are very concerned with the company’s timelines — something it’s been notoriously bad about — for promised products like affordable models, full self-driving, and the robotaxi. They’re also worried about how tariffs and political brand damage might affect the company’s future.

Here are some of the top questions on investors’ minds, listed by the number of upvotes on the Tesla investor relations site, and what we know so far about those topics:

Question: Is Tesla still on track for releasing “more affordable models” this year?

What we know: Reuters reported over the weekend that Tesla’s lower-cost, stripped-down Model Y, which was supposed to roll out in the first half of this year, is delayed “at least several months.”

Question: When will unsupervised full self-driving be available for personal use on personally owned cars?

What we know: Musk has been promising unsupervised FSD “next year” for at least the last five years. Musk in January said the technology was “limited simply by regulatory issues, not technical capability.”

“I’m very confident we have released unsupervised Full Self-Driving, fully autonomous Teslas in Austin and several other cities in America by the end of this year, as probably everywhere in America next year, at everywhere in North America at least.”

For now it seems that full self-driving will be confined to a Tesla-owned fleet of vehicles in Austin, not to personal vehicles. Musk has said this would start in June.

Question: How is Tesla positioning itself to flexibly adapt to global economic risks in the form of tariffs?

What we know: Because Tesla assembles its US-sold cars in the US, it’s insulated compared to other carmakers that finish their cars outside the US. That said, Tesla is heavily reliant on parts shipped from abroad, so its prices and bottom line could certainly be negatively affected by auto parts tariffs that go into effect next month; Musk and other Tesla execs have said as much.

Recently, Tesla suspended shipments of Cybercab and Semi parts from China because the tariffs were so onerous.

Question: Is the Robotaxi still on track for this year?

What we know: As far as we know, Tesla is still on track to roll out paid Cybercab rides in Austin in June (Google’s Waymo beat Tesla on that count), but we’ll believe it when we see it.

Recently, The Information reported that internal analysis from Tesla suggests the self-driving taxis might never be profitable.

Question: Did Tesla experience any meaningful changes in order inflow rate in Q1 relating to all the rumors of “brand damage”?

What we know: Tesla’s sales in Q1 saw the biggest drop ever and many analysts said brand damage related to Musk’s role in the government as well as the ensuing protests were at least partly to blame. Tesla bull Ives said brand damage from DOGE could create “15%-20% permanent demand destruction.” Indeed, surveys from YouGov found that while most Americans were aware of Tesla, they wouldn’t buy one — people interested in EVs would be much more likely to go for a Toyota or Honda.

Regarding DOGE, Musk himself said, “It’s costing me a lot to be in this job.”

And Tesla’s Cybertruck seems like it’s been especially difficult to sell. Just take a look at all of them stashed outside Tesla’s Texas production plant.

Jon Keegan4h

Meta will begin using your AI chats to target you with ads

When Meta rolls out a new product, the company usually waits until that product has a billion users before turning on the ads.

In May, Meta announced that Meta AI has crossed that threshold, saying that more than 1 billion people are using the product every month. Today, Meta announced that it will begin using your conversations and messages with Meta AI to personalize your recommendations and the ads you see.

Meta currently monetizes your activity on Meta platforms using your interactions (likes, shares, attention) to tailor your exposure to Meta’s massive advertising machine. So if you asked Meta AI about travel tips for your upcoming vacation, you might now see more content and ads related to that place. But what if you’re asking Meta AI about how to deal with your depression?

In a blog post, the company shared:

“When people have conversations with Meta AI about topics such as their religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, as always, we don’t use those topics to show them ads.”

But Meta has a spotty record when it comes to protecting sensitive personal information from leaking into its ad platform. Meta’s pixel-tracking technology has been found to pick up sensitive information regarding mental heath crises, financial information, and medical information.

Meta says you can manage the ads you see via controls in its privacy settings, but it’s unclear if users can opt out of the use of Meta AI conversations and interactions for ads and recommendations altogether.

The company said users will start to see notifications about the changes this month, which will go into effect on December 16, 2025.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Improving Your Recommendations on Our Apps With AI at Meta

In a blog post, the company shared:

“When people have conversations with Meta AI about topics such as their religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, as always, we don’t use those topics to show them ads.”

The company said users will start to see notifications about the changes this month, which will go into effect on December 16, 2025.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rani Molla5h

Tesla sales grow in some European countries for the first time this year

In September, Tesla sales rose in France and Denmark for the first time this year, while they also continued to grow in Norway and Spain, according to early European sales data reported by Reuters.

That’s a notable shift from the declines of previous months, as Tesla benefits from the rollout of its revamped Model Y and the introduction of numerous incentives across the continent, helping to stabilize its earlier sales slump.

Of course, Tesla’s European sales fluctuate dramatically month to month in Europe in part because the company doesn’t sell that many vehicles in Europe. Typically Tesla sells a few thousand vehicles per month per European country. In comparison, the automaker sells tens of thousands of cars in the US each month.

Tesla is up more than 2% in early trading, after having just capped off its best month since the election.

Rising ambitions and skyrocketing costs: Here’s what we know about Project Stargate

As the number of gigawatts and GPUs grows, so do the questions about how the massive data center project will be paid for.

Jon Keegan5h

Rani Molla7h

Apple reiterates plans to “partner with other generative AI chatbots” besides ChatGPT

Apple is playing the field with AI and it wants you to know.

In a filing to dismiss Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing the iPhone maker of favoring its partner OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the App Store, Apple said that can’t be the case because it is “widely known that Apple intends to partner with other generative AI chatbots.”

At its developer conference last year, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi previously mentioned that Apple “intends to add support for other AI models in the future.”

Apple currently has a partnership with ChatGPT where users can direct their Siri queries to go through the chatbot. Apple, whose AI strategy has lagged its peers, has also been in talks with Anthropic and Google, and is reportedly considering using Gemini to power Siri.

Apple’s lawyers refuted X Corp.’s claims that Apple cannot partner with OpenAI “without simultaneously partnering with every other generative AI chatbot — regardless of quality, privacy or safety considerations, technical feasibility, stage of development, or commercial terms.” Apple’s legal team added, “Of course, the antitrust laws do not require that.”

Apple has yet to announce who its future AI partners will be.

Apple Denies Harming Musk’s xAI by Teaming Up With OpenAI

At its developer conference last year, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi previously mentioned that Apple “intends to add support for other AI models in the future.”

Apple has yet to announce who its future AI partners will be.

Rani Molla9/30/25

Meta buys chip startup Rivos in effort to lower its reliance on Nvidia

Meta is buying AI chip startup Rivos for an unknown sum, as part of the social media company’s effort to decrease its reliance on graphics processing units from Nvidia, Bloomberg reports. Rivos was seeking funding in August at a $2 billion valuation. Meta has been spending exorbitant sums in an attempt to create AI models that are smarter than humans, an effort that’s involved investing in developing its own AI chips.