Elon Musk greets the crowd during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026.
Dennis Balibous | reuters
Tesla First quarter earnings report after the bell on Wednesday.
Here’s what Wall Street is expecting, according to estimates compiled by LSEG:
- earnings per share: 37 cents estimated
- Income: $22.64 billion estimated
Tesla has underperformed all of its megacap competitors on Wall Street so far this year, with the stock falling 14% on Tuesday due to declining sales in the company’s core automotive business. The S&P 500 is up more than 3%.
Analysts expect revenue growth of about 17% from $19.3 billion a year earlier. This will be the company’s strongest period of growth since mid-2023.
The past year has been a struggle due to competitors like China’s Xiaomi and BYD offering high-tech but lower-cost models to rival Tesla’s aging EV lineup. Tesla is also facing a backlash from consumers in response to CEO Elon Musk’s work with the Trump administration, his inflammatory political rhetoric and his support of far-right political figures.
Earlier this month, Tesla reported 358,023 vehicle delivery For the first quarter, that was down from the previous quarter and up about 6% from a year ago. Tesla has posted annual declines over the past two years.
Musk is trying to change the narrative by focusing on the company’s efforts in self-driving technology and humanoid robots. While the company is testing a small number of driverless cars in its ride-hailing service in Texas, Tesla still relies on EV sales for the bulk of its revenue, and does not yet sell robotaxi-ready vehicles.
Tesla sells an FSD (supervised) system for $99 per month but it requires active supervision by a human who is alert on the road and ready to steer or brake at any time. The company recently received permission to sell a version of FSD (supervised) in the Netherlands, and is seeking wider approval in Europe.
In its delivery report, Tesla said it deployed 8.8 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage systems during the first three months of 2026, following a record 14.2 gigawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2025 that disappointed Wall Street.
Musk had a very divided first quarter as he merged his aerospace and defense company SpaceX with his artificial intelligence venture xAI in a deal worth $1.25 trillion. Musk is now preparing the combined entity for what is expected to be a record IPO.
In Tesla’s last earnings report in January, the company said it was investing about $2 billion in xAI, with the holdings converting into SpaceX shares. Tesla and SpaceX are working on myriad new joint projects, including the TerraFab chip manufacturing facility in Texas and the deep integration of XAI’s Grok models and AI chatbots into Tesla vehicles and robotics.
Investors who submitted questions to Tesla online ahead of Wednesday’s earnings call asked about Tesla and SpaceX and how the companies could continue to work together, and whether they could ever merge.
Shareholders are also demanding solid data on Tesla’s long-promised driverless technology, when the company plans to reveal the latest version of its Optimus humanoid robot, and an update on its ride-hailing business, where it is lagging. alphabetical Waymo in the US, and Baidu’s Apollo Go in China.
Tesla’s robotaxi service, in its current form, covers most vehicles heyIn California they were handled by human drivers, or with human safety observers in the car. The company recently announced that it is expanding its service to Dallas and Houston.
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