TSLA Stock On Track For Best Day In Nearly 7 Months Ahead Of Q1 Earnings As Musk Hails AI5 Milestone

• Tesla is slated to report its first quarter earnings on April 22.
• CEO Elon Musk confirmed the taping out of its next-gen AI5 chip in a post on X earlier on Wednesday.
• Barclays in a note posed questions on the company’s capex while investors raised doubts on the company’s FSD, Optimus and robotaxi initiatives.

Shares of Tesla Inc. (TSLA) were in the spotlight on Wednesday on the heels of CEO Elon Musk’s X posts on its next generation of computing chips ahead of the company’s first quarter earnings results due on April 22.

The stock was up 7% at the time of writing, on track for its best session since September, if gains hold.

According to data from Fiscal.ai, analysts on average expect the company to report revenue of $22.82 billion, and earnings per share of $0.39, both higher than what was reported in the corresponding quarter of 2025.

Musk’s Updates On AI5

As the company gears up to report its earnings for the quarter where its delivery numbers disappointed investors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the taping out of its next-gen AI5 chip in a post on X.

AI5 is being manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics. Musk also said that the AI6 and Dojo3 are already in development, referring to Tesla’s in-house AI training platform to power autonomous-driving and robotics models, and added that the AI5 processor could become “one of the most produced AI chips ever.”

Musk previously called AI5 the “golden key” to Tesla’s physical AI era, with limited output expected in 2026, and volume production targeted for 2027. The chips are slated to go into the company’s upcoming humanoid robot Optimus and supercomputer clusters, Musk said.

Wall Street Weighs In

Barclays kept an ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla with a $360 price target ahead of the Q1 report. A key question on the earnings call will be how much incremental spending Tesla will need to incur for its physical AI projects, especially Terafab, the company’s massive-scale semiconductor fabrication plant project with SpaceX and xAI, the analyst told investors in a research note.

Barclays said that it believes Terafab could cost in the mid-single digit trillion dollar range if fully built out. While Tesla's capex is unlikely to "exponentially increase," a further step up from the elevated $20 billion figure Tesla talked to on the last earnings call is likely, Barclays said.

The recent selloff in TSLA shares "could imply on the surface an opportunity for the stock to outperform" on the Q1 results, but Barclays takes a "more tempered view into the print," as commentary of incremental capex "could be perceived negatively," the analyst noted.

TD Cowen, meanwhile, lowered the firm's price target on Tesla to $490 from $519 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares. For Tesla, the firm says the company's Q1 delivery miss and a "seemingly quiet quarter" for Robotaxis has "dampened sentiment" into Q1. TD sees a slightly positive setup for the stock into the earnings print.

Investor Queries In The Run Up To Q1 Print

Meanwhile, Tesla has started taking questions from shareholders, which they likely address during the earnings call. Popular questions include requests for a timeline on Optimus production and unveiling, upcoming milestones for Tesla’s film self-driving software and robotaxi expansion, and details on the impact of the company’s partnership with Musk's AI startup xAI.

Some investors also raised doubts if Tesla would merge with Musk’s SpaceX. The rocket manufacturing company and xAI merged in February, stoking rumours about further consolidation amongst the CEO’s other companies.  

How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA stock improved from ‘bullish’ to ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume remained at ‘high’ levels.

TSLA stock has gained about 53% over the past 12 months. 

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