Tesla earnings: Bitcoin bags untouched as firm splashes out on AI
Electric vehicle maker Tesla made no changes to its sizeable Bitcoin (BTC) holdings for the fifth quarter in a row. However, it has directed more funds to double its computing capacity amid artificial intelligence (AI) efforts.
Tesla’s Q3 2023 results released on Oct. 18 show as of Sept. 30, it held $184 million worth of digital assets — a portion of the $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin it first bought in March 2021.
The latest quarterly results mean it hadn’t 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.
On the other hand, Tesla reported it had “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.
Tesla saw its third-quarter earnings and profits miss Wall Street estimates, with reported total revenues of $23.35 billion. While this was up by nearly 9% from the prior-year period, it missed Zacks Investment Research’s estimate of $24.38 billion.
It also missed projected profits, with reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.66 compared to Zack’s $0.72 EPS estimate.
Total third-quarter operating expenses came in at $2.41 billion, marking more than a 13% increase from last quarter and over a 42.5% increase from the prior year.
Related: Bitcoin clean energy usage reportedly exceeds 50% — Will Tesla start accepting BTC payments?
Tesla’s research and development expenses were $1.16 billion in the quarter, a 58% jump from last year. It attributed the increases to its “Cybertruck, AI and other R&D projects.”
Tesla shares were down nearly 4.8% on the day, closing at $242.68 and fell a further 4.25%
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