Tesla (TSLA) crashes 12%, sheds $140B as Elon Musk’s ‘just trust me’ doesn’t hold anymore

Tesla stock dropped more than 12% today, losing over $140 billion in value, after the company's second-quarter earnings missed profit expectations and free cash flow turned negative for the first time in years. Revenue and deliveries hit records, but profit collapsed as spending jumped and a key revenue source, regulatory credits, fell 67%. Tesla also leaned on cheap financing deals to move cars, which cut into profit margins.

The stock fell further during the earnings call, when Elon Musk repeated familiar claims about the company's Optimus robot and its robotaxi self-driving service. Tesla reported 380,000 "unsupervised" miles across six cities, but that figure is small next to competitors, and the company's own data shows growth has stalled: paid robotaxi miles were flat compared to the prior quarter, and the number of active cars in the service has actually been shrinking even as Tesla adds new cities.

For homeowners, this is mainly a story about Tesla's stock and business strategy rather than anything that changes home energy costs or rebates. It doesn't affect EV incentives, solar programs, or home battery pricing directly. Tesla's energy storage business, which includes home batteries, did grow, with deployments up 41%, though margins there also slipped. The bigger picture is that investors are losing patience with Tesla's self-driving and robotics promises after years of missed deadlines.