Shares of Tesla closed more than 8% lower on Monday, just after two major announcements from Elon Musk’s company. However, nothing seemed to predict that investors would be more cautious.
At its AI Day event in early October, Tesla unveiled a first working Optimus robot prototype. The latter walked on stage before waving to the crowd. In addition to detailing the capabilities of his next crazy project, Elon Musk announced that the robot is expected to go into production within the next few years, and thathe expected to sell it for much less than a car, under $20,000.
Speaking of vehicles, Tesla also announced earlier this week that it had set a new delivery record in the third quarter of 2022, shipping 343,830 cars in just three months. Among them were 18,672 Model S and X vehicles, but also 325 158 Model Y and 3. Yet, despite these very promising numbers for the future, Tesla still saw its share price drop right after.
Tesla plummets again on the stock market
Despite these two announcements, Tesla stock was down 8% on Monday, while the Nasdaq was up 2%. This is therefore one of the biggest drops of the year for Tesla, which had already experienced a dark period at the end of last year after another controversial announcement from Elon Musk.
This stock market drop could be explained by slightly lower-than-expected shipments, even though Tesla had its best quarter yet. In effect, analysts had forecast nearly 358,000 vehicles would be shippedaccording to the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg, This difference of 15,000 vehicles delivered could therefore have been enough to discourage investors.
Moreover, although the Optimus robot has enormous potential, some insiders in the AI and robotics industry have mocked at the first prototype, price and timeline presented by Musk and Tesla employees. Some felt that Tesla’s presentation did not live up to their expectations, and that the company still had a long way to go before it hoped to be able to market its robot.