Tesla (TSLA): twelve years of losses, a first revenue decline in 2025 and a $1.5 trillion market value

Tesla designs, makes, sells and leases electric vehicles and energy storage and solar products. Its 2025 annual report says the company is focused on bringing artificial intelligence “into the real world” through Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Robotaxi and robots such as Optimus. In 2025 it booked $94.8 billion in revenue, 2.9% less than in 2024 — the first annual decline in a series that starts in 2008 — and earned $3.79 billion. At the Oct 9, 2026 close, the stock was worth $1.51 trillion: 3.950 billion shares at $382.70.

This profile follows the company through its SEC filings: how it got here, where the revenue comes from, the years whose profit needs a footnote, Elon Musk’s shares, and who has been buying and selling. For a side-by-side with General Motors, see Tesla vs. GM.

From Tesla Motors to Tesla, Inc.

Tesla was incorporated in Delaware on July 1, 2003, and began delivering its first car, the Roadster, in early 2008. Elon Musk chaired the board from April 2004, according to the 2010 IPO prospectus, and has been chief executive since October 2008; the 2012 annual report calls him the company’s “Chief Executive Officer and cofounder.” Robyn Denholm has chaired the board since November 2018.

The mission statement changed along the way. Through the 2024 annual report it was “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” The 2025 report says: “Our mission is building a world of amazing abundance.”

Where the revenue comes from

Regulatory credits are emission credits that other automakers buy from Tesla. They fell to $526 million in the first half of 2026, from $1,034 million a year earlier. Services and other covers used cars, maintenance, paid Supercharging, insurance and parts.

Tesla reports two segments and, unlike most companies, judges them by gross profit rather than operating profit. In 2025 the automotive segment — which includes credits, leasing and services — had $82.06 billion of revenue and a 16.2% gross margin; energy generation and storage had $12.77 billion and 29.8%. After $12.74 billion of operating expenses, company-wide operating income was $4.36 billion, a 4.6% margin. By sales location, the United States was 50.2% of revenue, China 22.1% and all other countries 27.7%.

Deliveries

Deliveries peaked in 2023; 2024 and 2025 are the only declines in the series. In 2026 they rose 6.3% in the first quarter and 25.0% in the second against the same quarters of 2025, then fell 2.1% in the third, to 486,532 from 497,099. Over nine months that adds up to 1.32 million, 8.8% more than a year earlier.

Profit, and the years that need a footnote

Tesla lost money every year from 2008 through 2019. The largest loss, $1.96 billion, came in 2017, the year Model 3 deliveries began. 2020 was its first full year of profit, $721 million — a year in which regulatory credits brought in $1.58 billion of revenue.

• 2023: the $15.00 billion includes a one-time, non-cash tax benefit of $5.93 billion. That is why 2024 looks like a 53% drop; before taxes, profit went from $9.97 billion to $8.99 billion.
• 2025: net income fell 46.5%, to $3.79 billion; before taxes it fell 41.3%, to $5.28 billion.

In the first half of 2026, revenue rose 21.0% to $50.6 billion, while operating income rose 1.3%, to $1.34 billion. Net income of $1.59 billion includes a $1.00 billion gain on Tesla’s stake in SpaceX in the second quarter, along with unrealized losses of $599 million on currencies and $334 million on digital assets, mostly bitcoin. Third-quarter results are due after the market close on October 21, 2026.

Musk’s shares

As of December 31, 2025, Musk beneficially owned 20.3% of Tesla, a count that includes 303.96 million shares from his 2018 stock options. It excludes the 423.7 million restricted shares of the award shareholders approved on November 6, 2025: 12 tranches of 35.3 million shares, each requiring a market value milestone — $2.0 trillion for the first, $8.5 trillion for the last — plus operational milestones. Under a voting agreement he does not vote those shares, and as of the June 2026 quarterly report no tranche was marked as achieved.

The 2018 award came back in 2026, after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated it. In the second quarter Musk exercised about 304 million options and paid the exercise price by having the company withhold about 17.5 million shares. Those shares stay restricted until January 19, 2028, as long as he remains in service.

Who owns it, and who sold

Ten of the 38 investment managers this site tracks reported Tesla in their 13F filings for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the same number as a quarter earlier. The largest holder among them is Cliff Asness of AQR, with 3.01 million shares worth $1.24 billion as reported; AQR values them at $412.03 a share, a little below the $420.60 close. Renaissance Technologies roughly quintupled its position, and Daniel Sundheim returned after last holding the stock in 2022. Andreas Halvorsen cut his stake by 78%, Baillie Gifford by 44% and Ken Griffin by 41%. These are positions as of June 30; the stock has fallen 9.0% since.

In the twelve months to October 9, 2026, no Tesla insider bought shares on the market. Directors and officers sold $87.7 million. Of that, $58.0 million went through pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans, mostly by directors Kathleen Wilson-Thompson ($29.95 million, in filings that also report option exercises) and James Murdoch ($26.7 million, through a trust). Another $4.1 million was sold automatically to cover taxes on chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja’s vesting shares, and $25.6 million was sold without a plan by director Kimbal Musk on December 9, 2025.

Elon Musk neither sold nor bought. His Form 4 filings in the period report the 2025 award, a gift of 210,699 shares to charities, the forfeiture of 96 million shares from an interim 2025 award once the 2018 award was reinstated, and the option exercise described above.

Valuation and the long run

At $382.70, Tesla trades at about 354 times its diluted earnings per share of the last twelve months ($1.08). Market value divided by net income gives a higher 397, because the 3.95 billion shares outstanding include about 710 million restricted shares held by Musk, while earnings per share use about 3.54 billion diluted shares. Divided by operating income, which leaves out the SpaceX gain, the multiple is 346. The stock is 21.9% below its highest close, $489.88 on December 16, 2025, and 12.1% lower than a year earlier. Tesla has never paid a dividend.

For the long view: $1,000 invested at the IPO price of $17.00 in June 2010 — about $1.13 after the 5-for-1 split of 2020 and the 3-for-1 split of 2022 — would be worth about $337,700 at the Oct 9, 2026 close. Someone who bought at the first day’s close paid $23.89 instead, 40.5% more, and would have about $240,300.

The figures above come from Tesla’s filings and the 13F and Form 4 filings listed below. They describe what happened; they are not a forecast and not investment advice. The Tesla page on this site has the same data updated daily, with a fair-price calculation explained in the methodology.