Skip to content

🐂 TSLA — Company Profile (Teaching)

Teaching site, not investment advice. Specific market cap / stock price / financial figures change frequently and are intentionally omitted; use the SEC + Yahoo Finance links below to pull real-time data yourself.

📌 Basics

Dimension Content Source
Core business Electric vehicles (Model 3 / Y / S / X / Cybertruck) + Energy (Megapack / Powerwall storage) + FSD (autonomous driving software) + Optimus humanoid robot (in productization) + in-house AI5 / AI6 inference chips (Samsung + TSM dual foundry) 10-K
Founded / HQ 2003 / Austin, Texas, USA (moved from CA Palo Alto in 2021) wiki
CEO Elon Musk (founder + CEO, since 2008) DEF 14A
Primary listing NASDAQ: TSLA —
Fiscal year Calendar year (Jan 1 – Dec 31) SEC EDGAR

💡 Real-time market cap / share price / quarterly deliveries / energy revenue: see SEC primary + IR links below.

🏭 Supply Chain Coordinates (Part 1-C6 framework)

Upstream (Who TSLA Depends On)

Supplier What flows Key dependency
CATL (300750.SZ / 3750.HK) LFP batteries for China + some international models Critical
LGES LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) Batteries for some models Multi-source
Panasonic (6752.T) NCA batteries for Nevada gigafactory Long-term partnership
NVDA + AMD Primary Tesla AI compute — Dojo team closed/restructured 2025/08 (Peter Bannon departed; some staff to new startup DensityAI); Tesla shifted to external GPUs (per TechCrunch / DCD); Dojo3 mentioned by Musk as potential 2026 space-based AI compute, no longer moat-core Critical
SSNLF + TSM In-house AI5 / AI6 chip foundry: AI5 + AI6 dual foundry (Samsung Taylor TX + TSM Arizona); Samsung signed $16.5B AI6 contract with Tesla (Taylor fab, through 2033) Dual foundry
Lithium / cobalt / nickel miners Battery raw materials (highly cyclical) Multi-source

Downstream (Who Depends on TSLA)

Customer Relationship Concentration
Global EV consumers C2B direct sales (bypassing traditional dealers) Highly diversified
Energy storage customers (utility + commercial + residential) Megapack / Powerwall — fastest-growing business Diversifying
Robotaxi (not launched) + Optimus (not launched) — future potential customers TBD TBD

Competitors

  • EV (traditional): GM Bolt / Hummer EV / F Mustang Mach-E / STLA Stellantis / BMWYY / VWAGY ID series
  • EV (China): BYDDY BYD (002594.SZ) / NIO / XPEV / LI Li Auto / Huawei Aito / Xiaomi SU7
  • Autonomous driving: GOOGL Waymo (Robotaxi commercialized first) / GM Cruise (restructured) / China Baidu Apollo / NVDA DRIVE / Mobileye (MBLY)
  • Energy storage: FLNC Fluence / SEDG SolarEdge / ENPH Enphase / China CATL ESS
  • Humanoid robots: 1810.HK Xiaomi / Figure (private) / Apptronik (private) / Unitree (China, private)

💼 Business Model + Value Capture (Part 1-C7 view)

  • Revenue mix: Automotive ~80%+ (vehicles + FSD software + regulatory credits) / Energy generation & storage ~10%+ (fastest-growing) / Services & other ~5%
  • Gross margin: Overall ~17-20% (vs. historical ~25%, significantly compressed by price war + reduced regulatory credits)
  • Pricing power: Model 3 / Y price-cut multiple times (China + global); Cybertruck limited edition premium pricing — medium
  • Substitution difficulty: Medium — China BYD / Xiaomi SU7 multiple competing models emerged, but FSD + Supercharger network still a niche advantage

(For specific quarterly revenue / delivery volumes / FSD revenue / energy storage, see the latest SEC 10-Q.)

🏰 Moat Assessment (Part 3-C2 Buffett 5-step lens)

Type Strength (0-1) Source
Brand 0.8 Global EV leader brand; Musk personal brand strong (but controversial)
Switching cost 0.4 Supercharger network + FSD software lock in some customers, but switching to traditional cars is easy
Network effects 0.4 Supercharger network + FSD training data
Scale + cost 0.6 Gigafactory global network + direct sales model; Dojo team restructured 2025/08 — AI compute moat shifted to external GPUs (NVDA/AMD) + AI5/AI6 in-house chips via Samsung + TSM dual foundry

Composite: 2.2 / 4 → medium moat, EV business under China competitive pressure + AI / Robotaxi / Optimus long-term narrative is the core thesis

⚠️ Key Reverse-Trigger Conditions (Part 3-C5 anti-thesis view)

  • Trigger 1 (quarterly): Global EV deliveries decline YoY (vs. historical +20-50%) — growth thesis shakes
  • Trigger 2 (annual): China market EV share continuously declines (vs. BYD / Xiaomi / Huawei counterattack) — Greater China revenue impact
  • Trigger 3 (event): FSD autonomous driving accidents + regulatory / litigation significant escalation
  • Trigger 4 (low probability, catastrophic): Robotaxi commercialization fails (vs. Waymo already commercialized) — long-term AI narrative failure
  • Trigger 5 (event): Musk's long-term attention diverted to xAI / X / SpaceX / Trump political role — Tesla execution weakens

🔗 Teaching Cross-References

📚 SEC Primary Filings (look it up yourself)

Real-time quote: Yahoo Finance TSLA

Teaching use · numbers change — learn the method, not the specific figures · investment decisions are based on your own research + risk tolerance