Tesla beats earnings expectations as Musk pivots automaker to AI and robots

Tesla reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, disclosing better than expected results. The report slightly boosted the company’s share price, which has limped along this year while its CEO, Elon Musk, has tried to sell the company’s new vision of humanoid robots and self-driving robotaxis. Its core car business has struggled in the face of competition from Chinese counterparts and backlash against his close involvement with the Trump administration.

“There remains significant effort and hard work to realize our mission of Amazing Abundance,” Tesla said in its report, while claiming that demand for its vehicles was rebounding.

Tesla revealed earnings of 41 cents a share on Wednesday after market close, more than the 37 cents per share that Wall Street expected. The company reported a positive free cash flow, but missed market expectations of its revenue with $22.39bn – weaker than the $22.6bn Wall Street estimated.

Tesla’s stock rose more than 3% immediately following the release of its report.

The earnings report comes as Tesla continues to pivot away from its automaker roots and emphasize its bets on AI, autonomous vehicle technology and robotics. Despite Musk’s usual grandiose promises and vows to dominate society’s future, Tesla’s stock has lagged behind mega-cap rivals recently and fallen around 11% so far this year. The company’s self-driving cars are on the road in several cities in Texas, including Austin, where it is headquartered. Tesla stated in its report that preparations were also underway to roll out robotaxis in three Florida cities, as well as Las Vegas.

In Tesla’s previous earnings calls over the past year, Musk has touted the company’s forthcoming products as inevitably world-changing innovations. He has claimed that the company’s Optimus robot, which has not yet entered wide production and is not available to the public, will be the “biggest product of all time”.

“We believe, with Optimus and self-driving, that you can actually create a world with no poverty,” Musk claimed in an earnings call in October.

The tangible benefits and revenue from Tesla’s robotics and robotaxi projects are yet to be seen, however, and investor questions around when the company can deliver have persisted. Meanwhile, Tesla’s core auto business has struggled. Tesla shareholders voted to award Musk a $1tn pay package in November anyway.

Tesla revealed earlier this month that it delivered around 358,000 vehicles globally in the first quarter of the fiscal year, falling short of analyst projections. In the US, the company has been hit with declining demand following the Trump administration ending a key tax credit for electric vehicles in 2025. After its stock price tanked at the start of 2025 amid backlash to Musk’s erratic time in government, it has since rebounded to close to where it was before Donald Trump took office.

As Tesla attempts to navigate flagging demand for its vehicles and position itself as part of the AI boom, the company also announced earlier this year it was discontinuing two of its flagship car models, the Model S and Model X. Its most recent new model, the Cybertruck, has not proven a sales success. Tesla is reportedly also developing a smaller, cheaper electric car to fend off competition from Chinese automakers such as BYD.

While Tesla was once the core of Musk’s empire, much of investors’ attention has shifted in the past year toward his satellite communications and rocket company SpaceX as it prepares to go public later this year. SpaceX this month confidentially filed for an initial public offering, seeking a valuation of $1.75tn.