Tesla Q2 2022 report shows crypto sell-off, decrease in profits - The Verge

Tesla reports a $2.26 billion profit for Q2, a 31 percent decrease from last quarter. This comes after the company announced hiring freezes and layoffs, and Elon Musk sold billions in Tesla stock to help fund his Twitter acquisition.

Tesla already reported vehicle shipment numbers for the second quarter, and now its full Q2 2022 financial report (pdf) reveals it’s dealing with inflation and the overall economic downturn, combined with a plunge in prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the letter to investors, Tesla execs reveal the company has sold 75 percent of its Bitcoin holdings, adding $936 million in cash to its balance sheet.

Last year, Tesla made a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin and announced that it would accept Bitcoin as payment. Tesla started accepting Bitcoin in late March, then abruptly reversed itself in May, just 49 days later.

In the latest report, Tesla says the value of its remaining “digital assets” is $218 million, which it had reported at around $1.2 billion in previous quarters. Last July, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “I might pump, but I don’t dump ... I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that. I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.”

During an investor call, Musk addressed the crypto selloff, saying that it “should not be taken as some verdict on Bitcoin.” Instead, he said, Tesla sold its Bitcoin because it was “concerned about overall liquidity of the company given COVID shutdowns in China.” Basically, Tesla needed the cash. “We have not sold any of our Dogecoin,” Musk said, later going on to call cryptocurrency “a sideshow to the sideshow.”

When it comes to its business of making electric cars — where new competitors seem to be announced every day — and solar products, the company is reporting that it made $2.26 billion in profit this quarter, around a 31 percent decrease from last quarter when it posted profits of $3.3 billion. The profit was earned on $16.9 billion in revenue, which is also down from Q1, where the company reported bringing in $18.7 billion.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/20/23271834/tesla-q2-2022-earnings-elon-musk

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