Tesla Earnings: Bitcoin Bags Untouched as Firm Invests in AI

Tesla’s AI Projects and Bitcoin Holdings

Electric vehicle maker Tesla has maintained its sizeable Bitcoin (BTC) holdings for five quarters in a row, while it has directed more funds to double its computing capacity for its growing artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

As of September 30th, Tesla held $184 million worth of digital assets, a portion of the $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin it first bought in March 2021. The company has not bought or sold any Bitcoin since its sell-off of around 75% of its holdings in Q2 2022 when it fetched $936 million for more than 30,000 BTC.

Tesla has also reported that it has “more than doubled the size” of its computing power for its AI projects, citing a growing training data set and switching the training of its humanoid robot Optimus to AI rather than coded software.

The company’s investment in AI technology, such as C3.ai, Argo AI, Fetch.AI, and AI Today, shows its commitment to leveraging the power of AI to further its mission.

Tesla Misses Wall Street Estimates

Tesla reported total revenues of $23.35 billion for the third quarter, a near 9% increase on the same period last year, but missing Zacks Investment Research’s estimate of $24.38 billion.

The reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.66 also fell short of the $0.72 EPS estimate from Zack.

Total third-quarter operating expenses came in at $2.41 billion, a 13% increase from the previous quarter and a 42.5% increase year-on-year.

The research and development expenses for the quarter were $1.16 billion, a 58% jump from 2019, due to investments in projects such as the Cybertruck, AI and other R&D initiatives.

Tesla shares were down nearly 4.8% on the day, closing at $242.68 and fell a further 4.25% in after-hours trading to $232.37 per Google Finance data. This was despite the recent surge in AI stocks such as C3.ai and Argo AI, which have seen their share prices skyrocket on the NYSE:AI. AI technology has been making waves in the art and business world today, and Fetch AI has been leading the charge.