Elon Musk waves to the crowd at the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026.
Dennis Bariboos | Reuters
tesla The company will announce its first quarter results after the bell on Wednesday.
Here’s what Wall Street is expecting, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Earnings per share: Estimated 37 cents Earnings: Estimated $22.64 billion
Tesla has underperformed its Wall Street giant peers so far this year, with the stock down 14% as of Tuesday’s close, weighed down by weak sales at its core auto business. The S&P 500 index rose more than 3%.
Analysts expect sales to rise about 17% from $19.3 billion a year ago. If that happens, it will be the company’s strongest period of growth since mid-2023.
Tesla’s aging EV lineup has struggled over the past year, with competitors such as China’s Xiaomi and BYD offering high-tech but lower-priced models. Tesla also faces continued consumer backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s collaboration with the Trump administration, his inflammatory political rhetoric and support for far-right politicians.
Tesla reported earlier this month that it delivered 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter, down from the previous quarter and up about 6% from a year ago. Tesla has recorded a decline every year for the past two years.
Musk has sought to change the narrative by focusing on the company’s efforts in self-driving technology and humanoid robots. Tesla is testing a small number of self-driving cars on its ride-hailing service in Texas, but it still relies on EV sales for most of its revenue and has not yet sold any robotaxi-enabled vehicles.
Tesla sells its FSD (supervised) system for $99 a month, but it requires active supervision by a human who is alert to the road and able to steer or brake at any time. The company recently won permission to sell an FSD (supervised) version in the Netherlands and is seeking broader approval in Europe.
Tesla said in its delivery report that it installed 8.8 gigawatt-hours of battery energy storage systems in the first three months of 2026, the first since a record 14.2 gigawatt-hours in the fourth quarter of 2025, a disappointment for Wall Street.
Musk’s attention was sharply divided in the first quarter as he merged his aerospace and defense company SpaceX and artificial intelligence venture xAI in a deal worth $1.25 trillion. Musk is currently preparing the combined entity for what is expected to be a record-breaking IPO.
Tesla announced in its last earnings report in January that it was investing about $2 billion in xAI, which converted its holdings into SpaceX stock. Tesla and SpaceX are working on a myriad of new joint projects, including the Terafab chip manufacturing facility in Texas and deeper integration of xAI’s Grok model and AI chatbot into Tesla cars and robots.
Investors asked Tesla questions online ahead of Wednesday’s earnings release, asking questions about Tesla and SpaceX, how the two companies will continue to work together and whether there is a possibility of a merger.
Shareholders are also demanding hard numbers on Tesla’s long-promised driverless technology, with the company expected to announce the latest version of its humanoid robot Optimus and updates on its lagging ride-hailing business. of the alphabet Waymo in America, Baidu’s China’s Apollo.
In its current form, Tesla’s robotaxi service operates mostly in California with vehicles driven by human drivers or human safety supervisors inside the vehicle. The company recently announced that it is expanding its services to Dallas and Houston.
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