The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Rojorders' News.

What's Eating at Elon Musk?

That's the question we're tackling on this week's views room, a weekly conversation among

breaking views columnists about the ups and downs of the world of finance.

I'm Jennifer Sayba.

This week, I'm relieving Antity Curry of his duties as co-host to put him in the hot seat to talk to him about Tesla's boss. Anthony, hi.

Hello.

So there's a lot going on here.

In the past week, Elon Musk has presided over Tesla's biggest ever quarterly loss.

He's berated Wall Street analysts for

asking him boring and boneheaded questions. And he started a spat with Warren Buffett. That's a lot what on earth is going on with this guy. Hey, he's just a busy guy. I don't know what the problem is. I mean, come on. We should also add in there. He also had a go at shorts as part of having a go short sellers as part of having a go out of the analyst so he's really getting in the whole sort of mood of

everyone's on my opinion. also add in there he also had a go at shorts as part of having a go as short sellers as part of having a go at the analyst so he's really getting in the

whole sort of mood of everyone's on my back just leave me alone but yes for

freshing I do have to admit well to some extent and actually you know what

there are times when I think most executives on earnings calls really wish

they could say what they really felt about some of the questions I mean mean, you and I have both listened to plenty of these, and there are times when it just feels like the analysts are getting into the weeds just so they can say to their clients the following day, did you hear me? I asked the question. And maybe that's not what they're doing, but it does feel like that sometimes. But in this instance, it felt, I mean, Musk was already on the defensive. And he must have seen a lot of the coverage before. And people saying the numbers are going to be bad. And yeah, it was the biggest quarterly loss ever. Okay, so let's stop here for a second and kind of set the scene. Because Tesla has been kind of up and down with the share price and whatnot over the past couple of months, right? And there's this big problem with production of its new model. Is that the big thing that's the overhang of this company right now? It's the thing everyone's focused on. Actually, one of the questions, well, both questions from the analysts that were shun aside one for asking boring boneheaded questions

and the other one I think must said you know these you're just killing me these questions are so

dry the first one was about capital expenditure now they cut capital expenditure in the quarter by or

I think in the quarter they said we're cutting it for the rest of the year by 400 million about

12% or so of the total cabex for the year so okay why is that it's like, because we think we're doing better at the processes, blah, blah, blah. I said, but yes, but you're also, you're burning cash again. You've burnt through a billion dollars of cash. So the analysts were trying to get more information on why exactly capital expenditure was going down. As they're ramping up for a new model. As they're ramping up for the new model. That's been delayed. Yes. And trying to also start the or get the semi-truck going, the Model Y, which is the next car to be developed next year, and all these other things they're planning in solo generation. These are perfectly fine questions. They might be boring. Of course, I mean. They're about financials. And if you are

someone like Elon Musk, who's basically an entrepreneur, then dealing with these nitty, gritty gritty questions, I'm sure is a pain in the neck, especially when most of it is about, hang on, aren't you spending a lot of money? And, you know, frankly, what you need to show us is when is when you're finally going to hit these production targets on the Model 3,

which is the big car that they're hoping to make into a mass produced car over the next couple of years. And they've missed so many targets on that. And if they don't get to profitability this year, Musk says, we're going to get there by the second half this year, then they're not going to have enough cash. And they've got $500 million of debt coming due to this year They've got, they've spent through a billion dollars last quarter. They've got $2.7 billion of cash left. They say we don't want to go below $1 billion of cash. So the pressure is really on Musk to make sure that this projection of earning money by the third and fourth quarter's works. Otherwise, they will definitely still be burning cash and will need to raise capital, which he said on the call last week. He definitely doesn't want to do. So, of course, analysts want to know, how is it all working then? Okay, so also going on, maybe you can take us through this, that there is, they're about to have their annual meeting, is that correct?

...