Tesla Holds Steady with Bitcoin as Earnings Decline

According to the most recent financial report from the business, Tesla has reiterated its commitment to keeping its Bitcoin (BTC) reserves for the fifth consecutive quarter. According to the research, Tesla still has 9,720 Bitcoins, valued at a current market value of about $275.4 million given the current price of Bitcoin at $28,300.

This choice stands in sharp contrast to Tesla’s prior attempts to enter the bitcoin market. The electric car company made headlines in the first quarter of 2021 by building a Bitcoin treasury with a peak value of $1.5 billion by purchasing more than 43,000 bitcoins at an estimated average cost of $34,000.

But environmental worries forced a change in approach. Tesla sold a sizeable chunk of its Bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2021, and it cut its Bitcoin assets by another about 75% in the second quarter of 2022, suffering a 48% loss.

Tesla is the third-largest Bitcoin holding among publicly traded corporations, behind only Marathon Digital Holdings and MicroStrategy, despite recent sell-offs. Tesla’s cryptocurrency moves are widely watched by the market since Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, has a big impact on Bitcoin pricing.

Earnings and AI Aspirations

In its financial report for the July to September quarter, Tesla reported net income of $1.85 billion, a 44% decrease from the same time last year. Profits per share decreased as well, falling from 95 cents to 53 cents.

Nevertheless, despite budgetary modifications, Tesla showed off important developments in its AI projects. By switching from traditional coding to AI-based techniques, the business has significantly expanded its AI processing power, notably for its humanoid robot, Optimus.

In their Q3 2023 earnings report, Tesla announced, “We have commissioned one of the world’s largest supercomputers to accelerate the pace of our AI development, with compute capacity more than doubling compared to Q2.”

Additionally, Tesla’s expenditure in R&D soared to $1.16 billion, representing an astounding 58% growth from the previous year. These monies are used for a variety of initiatives, such as the creation of the Cybertruck, the development of artificial intelligence, and several other research and development projects.

Despite these important improvements, Tesla’s shares plummeted by over 4.8% on October 18 to reach a closing price of $242.68, and by an additional 4.5% in after-hours trading to reach a final price of $231.61, according to data from Google Finance.