TSLA Stock Continues Slide After Musk Says ‘A Little Less Capital Efficient’ Is Acceptable — Warns Of Rising Capex for Next 2-3 Years

• CFO Vaibhav Taneja said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call that Tesla is securing debt facilities that give it access to up to $30 billion. 
• When asked about the pace of capital spending, Musk said Tesla is prioritizing speed over maximum capital efficiency.
• Tesla is currently attempting to scale multiple products across AI and robotics segments, including the Optimus and Cybercab, in addition to its automotive business.

Shares of EV giant Tesla Inc fell as much as 5% after-hours on Wednesday after the company said that its capital expenditure will continue to grow for the next 2-3 years as the company seeks to scale its AI and robotics ventures.

For FY6, the company expects capex to be more than $25 billion, marking a huge jump from the $8.5 billion recorded in 2025.  

“CapEx will grow for the next 2 or 3 years as we expand our robotaxi fleet, expand our production capacity for Optimus, make investments for semiconductor fab install solar manufacturing capacity and compute infrastructure in addition to all the other expansions we will do for other manufacturing, for automotive,” company CFO Vaibhav Taneja said during the company’s second quarter earnings call. In addition to using its cash, Tesla is securing debt facilities that give it access to up to $30 billion to speed up these investments, the CFO noted.

Shares of TSLA slipped 3% after-hours immediately after the company reported a beat in second-quarter revenue but a miss on earnings, but fell further on the heels of the higher capex predictions on the earnings call.

A Little Less Capital Efficient Is Fine, Says Musk

In the second quarter alone, Tesla recorded 142% year-on-year increase in capital expenditure to $5.8 billion, causing it to report negative free cash flow of $1.1 billion.

When asked about the pace of capital spending, Musk said Tesla is prioritizing speed over maximum capital efficiency. He stated that the company is comfortable being “a little less capital efficient” if it allows projects to move forward faster, as time-to-market is more valuable in this phase.

Musk described Tesla’s current level of simultaneous construction and production scaling across multiple new businesses as unprecedented in the modern era.

What Is Tesla Spending On?

Tesla exited the second quarter with its largest vehicle order backlog since 2023, Taneja said, attributing it to a broad resurgence in demand across all major regions. He stated that the company is now focused on ramping production across its factories to meet this higher level of demand. However, he cautioned that production growth will be constrained by the supply chain, particularly batteries and electronic components, and said the Tesla team is actively working to secure additional supply to alleviate these bottlenecks.

Elon Musk also highlighted significant supply chain challenges for the Optimus humanoid robot, describing it as the hardest product Tesla has ever had to scale from a manufacturing perspective. Unlike electric vehicles, where many components such as wheels, body panels, and glass could leverage existing supplier networks, Optimus has no established supply chain, Musk said. As a result, Tesla has been forced to either build out an entirely new supply chain or manufacture a large portion of the robot’s components in-house, he added.

Tesla has already begun installing first-generation production lines for Optimus at its Fremont factory, after clearing out the retired Model S and Model X lines. Musk indicated that production is expected to start later this year, initially focused on internal use for data collection and further development rather than immediate external sales.

He added that a second, much larger Optimus factory is under construction at Gigafactory Texas and is expected to begin production around mid-2027.

With Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi offering called the Cybercab, which has no steering wheels or pedals, Musk said that the company has already started production at Texas's gigafactory but emphasized that safety is a priority in the early deployment phase.

“We go as fast as humanly possible in scaling robotaxi, but while trying to ensure that we do not harm anyone at all — and ideally, do not even run over a pet,” Musk said.

Regarding the Cybercab, Musk noted that because it is an entirely new vehicle platform, Tesla must first accumulate a significant amount of driving data specific to the Cybercab chassis before it can deploy large numbers of them to its robotaxi fleet. Test vehicles are currently being retrofitted with steering wheels and pedals to gather this data, he added.

How Did TSLA Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA stock fell from 'bullish' to 'neutral' territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume rose from 'normal' to 'high' levels. 

A Stocktwits user dismissed the capex concerns, saying there is nothing to worry about as long as there is growth.

Another expressed concerns about the company’s expectations being largely tied to robotics.

TSLA stock has lost 17% year-to-date.

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