Elon Musk Delivers Short Seller Warning — Is His Timeline Finally Lining Up With Reality’s Again? – CleanTechnica

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As I’ve been writing and saying lately, Tesla seems to be quickly entering a big, decisive chapter in its overall story. For years, there was a strong battle of narratives on whether Tesla could survive. Critics, auto industry insiders, and TSLA short sellers were convinced Tesla could never produce a mass-market car, could never become profitable, and would soon see its death bed. That feels like a different lifetime now. The company succeeded, it became highly profitable, and TSLA short sellers got absolutely burned.

Of course, there is a little footnote to add there. According to Elon Musk, the company was about two weeks away from running out of money after several months of not being able to get the Model 3 to mass production. “Production Hell” was the most famous term from that era. Because of the hard work and ingenuity of countless people, the huge challenges of mass producing the Model 3 were solved and Tesla won. However, if we’re being honest, if a few things had gone differently, the story of Tesla could have been dramatically different.

In the end, it took a long time for Elon Musk’s expectations and timeline to line up with reality, but they did so right at the last minute.

Tesla was never supposed to get into another “bet the company” phase after that, at least not in coming years and while Elon Musk was around. And with $41 billion in the bank, it’s certainly not in a bet the company moment right now. However, the company has been drifting in that direction, and it feels like a similar kind of race against time (and financial trends) is underway at the company.

Naturally, I’m talking about Tesla’s shift to robotaxis, robots, and AI. At the moment, these are all very exciting for Tesla fans (who seem to almost universally be Tesla investors now), but the simple fact is that they are all “burning cash” — or, put a more boring way, in a development phase where costs exceed revenue, by a lot. The question for a looooong time has been whether they will pay off. Well….

Perhaps Elon Musk just got irritated and sent our a threatening tweet, as he’s been known to do in recent years, or perhaps Tesla is finally on the verge of Elon Musk’s expectations and timeline lining up with reality again. On Sunday, in response to a comment/joke about Bill Gates closing his short position on Tesla, Elon Musk responded “If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon.”

Perhaps this is a sign that Elon Musk is truly confident things are about to click for Tesla, as this is reminiscent of his warnings to short sellers before the company became profitable. Or perhaps it’s just a knee-jerk reaction to a post on X about Bill Gates.

Now, are there any signs Bill Gates has held a short position on TSLA for 8 years? No. Gates had reportedly admitted to Musk several years ago that he had put $500 million into shorting TSLA, thinking it was going to go bust, but one would not assume he’d have admitted that to him, tried to work with Musk on something (philanthropy), and then continued shorting TSLA. Of course, Gates has made all kinds of poor assumptions and decisions in the energy sector in the past decade plus, so it would not be the first or second or even third mind-boggling mistake Gates made. But here’s one response highlighting how absurd it would be if Gates was just now closing out a short position on the company:

The bigger question is really if Tesla is finally on the verge of a breakthrough or milestone Elon Musk has been hyping up for nearly a decade.

Who knows? I’m really not bullish on Tesla’s robotaxi, robot, and AI plans, but I was for years. No one knows what the future holds, but perhaps the company’s #1 insider does have notable short-term insights at the moment. We shall see.

Perhaps it is worth remembering that Tesla barely survived in 2018. Or perhaps it’s worth remembering that Tesla did survive and proved all the critics and skeptics wrong. Who knows?