- Tesla’s latest quarterly results confirmed that the company did not acquire or divest Bitcoin during this period.
- Tesla stated that it had “more than doubled” the size of its computing resources, mainly for its AI projects.
Tesla maintained its significant Bitcoin holdings through the third quarter of 2023, marking the fifth consecutive quarter with no changes to its digital asset investments.
However, in its continued push for artificial intelligence (AI), the company has committed additional funds to double its computing capacity.
Tesla’s third quarter 2023 financial results, released on October 18, revealed that the company still owned approximately $184 million worth of digital assets as of September 30. This holding is a fraction of the $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin Tesla initially purchased in March 2021.
The latest quarterly results confirm that Tesla did not acquire or divest Bitcoin during this period. The company takes a consistent approach to managing its digital assets.
It is worth noting that there was a significant change in Tesla’s Bitcoin strategy last year. The company sold approximately 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in the second quarter of 2022, realizing $936 million from the sale of over 30,000 BTC.
In contrast to its holdings of digital assets, Tesla reported substantial growth in its computing capacity. It stated that it had “more than doubled” the size of its computing resources, mainly for its AI projects.
The expansion was attributed to the need to process an increasingly large training dataset and shift the training of its humanoid robot, Optimus, from conventional software coding to AI-based techniques.
Tesla’s official statement indicated:
“We commissioned one of the largest supercomputers in the world to accelerate the pace of our AI development, more than doubling computing capacity compared to the second quarter.”
Q3 2023 results show significant AI infrastructure growth
Despite these investments and innovations, Tesla’s third-quarter financial results fell short of Wall Street expectations, especially in earnings and profits.
The company reported total revenue of $23.35 billion for the quarter, up nearly 9% from the same period last year. However, this figure fell short of the $24.38 billion estimate forecast by Zacks Investment Research.
Similarly, Tesla’s third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) was $0.66, which was lower than Zacks’ $0.72 EPS estimate.
In addition, operating expenses exceeded $2.41 billion in the third quarter, representing an increase of more than 13% from the previous quarter and more than 42.5% from the previous year.
A significant portion of Tesla’s spending can be attributed to research and development (R&D) activities. It amounted to $1.16 billion for the quarter. This represented a significant increase of 58% compared to the previous year.
The expenses related to various R&D projects, including the development of the Cybertruck, AI initiatives and other research projects.
Tesla’s financial performance for the quarter impacted its stock market value. Tesla shares turned down up almost 4.8% during the trading day to close at $242.68.
Then, Tesla shares fell further 4.25% to $232.37 in after-hours trading, according to facts from Google Finance.