*By Brigette Webb*
Tesla's stock is one of the most divisive on Wall Street, with bulls who subscribe wholeheartedly to CEO Elon Musk's vision and a legion of short sellers who say the electric carmaker is in for a rude financial awakening.
The company's second quarter earnings only widened the rift. Tesla posted a record net loss of more than $717 million on revenue of $4 billion. Musk vowed that Tesla would post its first quarterly profit this fall.
Galileo Russell, the founder of HyperChange TV, who also owns 60 Tesla shares, said Monday during a Cheddar roundtable discussion of Tesla's future that he has faith in Musk's outlook.
"I'm a long-term investor, this is a growth story," Russell said. "They are trying to double or triple production in a year, so they are losing money, it's not like they are losing money in perpetuity."
Mark Spiegel, the managing member of Stanphyl Capital, said he's less optimistic.
"They can't turn a profit the way they are," Spiegel said on Cheddar. "They have an insatiable need for cash, they will never be cash-flow positive until they stop growing."
The company's financials are not the only open question ー Musk's leadership is a big variable.
The outspoken CEO berated analysts in the company's [first-quarter earnings call] (https://cheddar.com/videos/elon-musk-versus-the-world-2call), and tried to atone for his rude behavior [in the second-quarter call](https://cheddar.com/videos/musk-apologizes-for-impolite-behavior-stock-surges).
Though some investors may view his contrition as the start of a new era for Musk and the company, Spiegel said he's not so sure.
"He's 47 years old, tigers don't change their stripes," Spiegel said. "He can put on an act, but we've all seen who the real Elon Musk is plenty of times."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/bull-vs-bear-is-tesla-stock-a-boom-or-a-bust).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
