It appears Tesla CEO Elon Musk is back to grinding at work.
The electric vehicle maker’s investors will be glad to hear it. They will be looking to hear more from Musk this coming week, when Tesla reports second-quarter results on July 23.
“Back to working 7 days a week and sleeping in the office if my little kids are away,” tweeted Musk on Saturday.
The past few months have been a whirlwind for Musk, who went from publicly endorsing President Donald Trump’s candidacy, to working for the president in a controversial job slashing the federal government, to leaving that post and feuding publicly with Trump on social media.
(Musk has also threatened to form a new political party.)
Tesla stock was about $250 a share when Musk endorsed Trump in July 2024. Shares hit a record high of $488.54 shortly after the inauguration, with investors euphoric that the Trump-Musk relationship would benefit Musk’s companies. But then things reversed. Tesla stock traded below $215 in April amid peak-tariff fears and falling sales for Tesla.
Tesla sold just 721,000 cars in the first half of the year, down 13% from the same time a year ago, stirring fears that Musk’s politics were turning off core Tesla buyers—politically left-leaning people looking to go green. At the start of 2025, Wall Street expected vehicle sales of closer to 970,000 in the first half, according to FactSet.
For the second quarter, Tesla sold about 384,000 cars, in line with reduced expectations. Wall Street is now looking for earnings of about 40 cents a share, down from about 50 cents in the second quarter of 2024.
If earnings fall again, it will be the sixth quarterly decline in the past eight quarters. Still, Tesla stock trades for almost 180 times estimated 2025 earnings.
Much of that multiple comes down to Musk. Investors believe he will usher in a new wave of earnings growth through innovation in artificial intelligence. Tesla launched its AI-trained robo-taxis in Austin, Texas in June.
On Wednesday, investors will be looking for an update about robo-taxis and AI-trained robots, which Tesla intends to start selling in significant volumes in 2026.
Investors will also be looking for plans to turn around car sales, which could include a promised lower-priced model, which has been coming for a while. Tesla management reiterated their commitment to lower-priced cars on the first quarter conference call, but no one has seen the vehicle yet.
Most important, investors want to hear that Musk is fully engaged at Tesla and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 18% so far this year, but up about 38% over the past 12 months.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com