Investors Wonder About Tesla's Future
【The Wall Street Journal (Feburary 12, 2024)】
Tesla has long sold investors on the hope of a brighter future. But these days, what is that mission? As time wore on and others began chasing the EV dream, Musk positioned Tesla as a gateway for artificial intelligence through driverless cars and then humanoid robots. So what makes the company special in a world where Musk doesn't see climate change as a near-term risk and is wavering on his commitment to pursue AI?
In 2019, as some Tesla investors questioned whether the Model 3 could live up to Musk's goals, the chief executive held a special presentation for investors to tout the company's efforts to develop the autonomous technology by the end of 2020. Investors seemed to buy into it. Shares more than doubled last year in part driven by investors worried that Musk was too distracted by his acquisition of the social-media platform now known as X.
And Musk appears to be distancing himself from some of the green movement that had so embraced him years ago. That future, in Musk's telling, involves humanoid robots, dubbed Optimus, that he says Tesla is working to develop, using the technology behind its driverless cars. "I think," he added, "we've got a good chance of shipping some number of Optimus units next year."
A.But he also pulled back some of his expectations after Musk's comment about control.
B.At a public event in December, Musk described the alarm over climate change as "somewhat overblown in the short term."
C.Then, almost a year ago, Musk asked Tesla investors to take a leap of faith that the company's future was all about rolling out AI software to enable robot cars.
D.At first, Musk was to many investors and fans the answer to climate change, especially as Elon Musk showed a zero-emissions vehicle could be both cool and profitable.
E.Any change of organizational or legal structure that impedes Tesla's ability to participate in the development of
AI could be detrimental to the investment thesis.
F.By then, Musk had long been selling the future of Tesla as something more than just electric cars.
G.Optimus, as he said, is an extremely revolutionary product and something that he thought had the potential to far exceed the value of everything else at Tesla combined.