On Thursday, July 23, 2026, Tesla closed at $319.69, down 14.52%: its worst session in more than a year and its lowest level since August 2025. In a single day the company shed nearly $195 billion in market capitalization, a figure larger than the market value of any other automaker. From its all-time high of $498.83, reached in December 2025, the stock has now given up more than 30% of its value, making it the worst 2026 performer among the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants.
The sell-off is surprising because second-quarter revenue came in above expectations. Tesla posted revenue of $28.24 billion, up 26% year over year and ahead of Wall Street estimates, while deliveries rose to 480,126 vehicles, 25% more than in the same period of 2025.
What disappointed instead were margins and profitability. Earnings per share came in at just $0.33, well below forecasts of between $0.50 and $0.55. Gross margin fell to 16.9% and operating margin collapsed to 1.4%, while operating expenses jumped 47% to $4.35 billion. For the first time since early 2024, free cash flow turned negative, with a $1.09 billion shortfall.
The real reason for the panic: how much the future will cost
According to analysts, though, it was not so much the quarterly results that spooked investors as the outlook for the coming years. Elon Musk described 2026 as a «year of massive capital expenditure», while chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja confirmed investment above $25 billion, set to rise further.
The money will fund the expansion of the Robotaxi fleet, the development of the Optimus humanoid robot, new semiconductor plants, artificial-intelligence infrastructure, and production capacity in the energy business. Musk also explained that Tesla is arranging credit lines capable of providing up to $30 billion of additional borrowing capacity.
The market read these statements as a sign of sharply rising costs and returns that are still far off. On the conference call, Musk admitted that Tesla would be «less capital-efficient» in order to accelerate the development of its new technologies—a phrase that did not sit well with investors.
On the self-driving front, Tesla announced that its Robotaxi service is now available in seven US cities and that the fleet has driven more than 380,000 miles without a driver. However, according to Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh, the number of Cybercabs actually in service is just 25 to 50, against the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles already operated by Waymo.
Optimus, too, remains a project far from commercialization. Tesla has confirmed the start of its first production lines, but the robots will initially be used only to gather training data. Musk has called Optimus the most complex product the company has ever developed and gave no date for large-scale production.
After the results, several investment banks cut their price targets on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered its target from $417 to $400, while Mizuho went from $480 to $450, citing among other factors the impact of tariffs and the end of tax incentives for electric vehicles.
The only positive signal comes from the FSD (Full Self-Driving) assisted-driving software: subscriptions rose 56% in a year, reaching 1.48 million users. For the market, however, that growth is not enough to offset the uncertainty over the timing and cost of Tesla’s big bet on artificial intelligence and robotics.
Editor’s note
This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Alessandro Nuzzo on July 25, 2026 as «Così Tesla ha perso 200 miliardi in un solo giorno». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.
