The electric car manufacturer led by Elon Musk holds a substantial amount of Bitcoin. For several quarters now, this amount has remained unchanged as the company is directing its investments towards AI, development, and research.
For the fifth consecutive quarter, Tesla has prioritized other investments over Bitcoin, primarily focusing on artificial intelligence and improving computing power. In March 2021, their Bitcoin holdings amounted to $1.5 billion. However, this figure has significantly decreased, as their third-quarter reports show that they currently hold digital assets worth around $184 million.
In mid-2022, Tesla decided to sell a little over 70% of its Bitcoin holdings. At that time’s valuation, they sold over 30,000 bitcoins for approximately $936 million. Since then, the company has not made any further moves with its digital assets.
The company seems to have chosen to focus on optimizing its AI. They claim to have at least doubled the computing power of their machines. They cite the example of their innovative humanoid robot, Optimus, which was introduced a year ago. Optimus used to operate and perform its tasks based on pre-programmed software. However, they have now decided that its development and functioning will be through AI.
Tesla Fell Short of Expectations
According to the data released by the company, they failed to meet the earnings estimates set by Wall Street. Additionally, their revenues amounted to approximately $23.35 billion. They also fell short of Zack Investment Research’s expectations, which predicted earnings of $24.38 billion. It’s worth noting that their revenues increased by 9% compared to the same period last year.
Zack’s also estimated that earnings per share (EPS) would be around $0.72 each. However, Tesla did not meet this expectation, reporting that the Earnings per Share were $0.66 each.
Over the course of a year, Tesla has increased its operating expenses by more than 40%, reaching approximately $2.5 billion in the last quarter, reflecting an increase of over 13% compared to the previous period.
For now, Tesla’s stock has dropped by 4.25%, settling at $232.37 per share. It remains to be seen what the outcome will be for Elon Musk’s chosen path, as he seems to have decided that the company’s future lies in the accelerated development of artificial intelligence, as reflected in the significant budget growth of projects like Cybertruck, Optimus, and others.
