Elon Musk goes to war against Tesla (TSLA) shorts again

Elon Musk is once again going to war against people shorting Tesla (TSLA) stock, saying they will be “wiped out.”

Shorts, or people who bet against a company’s stock, have long played a role in Tesla’s history on the stock market, and CEO Elon Musk has often commented on the situation—even going so far as to predict its demise and bet on it at every opportunity.

Over the years, Tesla has often been at the top of the most shorted stocks on the NASDAQ. As the automaker became profitable, short positions began to make losses and lose interest.

This year, Tesla shorts made some money as the company had a difficult first half of the year on the stock market.

That changed in the last week.

Tesla shares are up 30% in the last week and it looks like short sellers are circling the stock again.

Hedge fund tracker Hazeltree notes that hedge fund short interest in Tesla stock has increased over the past month.

NASDAQ reports a recent increase in short selling of Tesla shares, but the cover time is still only 1.5 days since the last update in June:

For those who remember the extent of short selling of Tesla shares from 2017 to 2020, this is nothing.

However, short interest is likely to have increased in recent weeks with the rapid rise in Tesla stock price, which should be confirmed by an update on short interest volume in the coming days.

In a recent post to X, Musk said he expects these shorts to be “wiped out” – once Tesla has solved autonomous driving and Optimus has gone into mass production:

Once Tesla has fully solved autonomous driving and completed mass production of Optimus, anyone still holding a short position will be wiped out. Even Gates.

The CEO specifically mentions Bill Gates, who is known for temporarily short-selling Tesla stock.

Electrek’s opinion

I don’t know why he keeps making comments like that. Of course, the shorts would be destroyed if Tesla solved the autonomy problem. They know that. They’re betting Tesla won’t solve it, or won’t solve it before anyone else.

They have been right so far. Elon has claimed every year since 2019 that Tesla would be driving autonomously by the end of the year.

Elon himself said that anyone who does not believe that Tesla will solve the problem of autonomy should not invest in the stock.

I wouldn’t short Tesla, but the move to short isn’t far-fetched if you don’t believe Tesla can solve the autonomous driving problem.

Besides, I don’t even know why Elon and Tesla fans hate shorts so much. They have been good for Tesla’s stock. Tesla’s biggest jumps in value have involved some short squeezes.