Emphasis on AI helped
Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter of 2024. In short: the company failed to meet the expectations of investors and Wall Street analysts.
Wall Street consensus estimates for the quarter were for revenue of $22.22 billion and earnings of $0.49 per share. Tesla confirmed it earned $21.3 billion and reported earnings of $0.45 per share.
Despite weak revenue and earnings expectations, which are usually the main drivers of stock prices, Tesla shares rose as much as 8% after the results were released.
According to Electrek, this is likely due to the fact that Tesla tried to shift attention to artificial intelligence in its report. The automaker announced that it «increased artificial intelligence training computing capabilities by more than 130% in the first quarter», which is impressive considering that before this quarter Tesla already had one of the largest supercomputers in the world.
For the first time in a long time, Tesla's cash position shrank in the first quarter, but it still has a healthy $26.9 billion:
Cash, cash equivalents and investments at the end of the quarter in the first quarter were $26.9 billion. The sequential decrease of $2.2 billion was the result of negative free cash flow of $2.5 billion driven by a $2.7 billion inventory increase and $1.0 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure capex in the first quarter.