eBusiness Weekly
Bloomberg
Tesla has increased its capital expenditure plan by billions of dollars after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk referred to the carmaker’s new factories as “gigantic money furnaces.”
The company now expects US$6 billion to US$8 billion of capital expenditures this year and each of the next two years, according to its latest quarterly report. Tesla had previously estimated it would spend between US$5 billion and US$7 billion on ramping manufacturing facilities and other items.
Musk told a Tesla owners club at the end of May that the company was struggling to boost production of Model Y sport utility vehicles at factories that opened last quarter near Berlin and in Austin, Texas. The carmaker still managed to beat estimates for second-quarter earnings, and the CEO’s optimism about emerging from supply chain challenges sent shares soaring to the highest since early May.
Tesla also disclosed it recorded a US$170 million impairment loss in the first half of the year related to the carrying value of its Bitcoin holdings. It also reported a $64 million gain from selling the digital asset during the period.
