Tesla's financial report: Investing heavily in artificial intelligence and continuing to hold Bitcoin

Electric car maker Tesla has made no changes to its sizable Bitcoin holdings in the past five quarters, even as it has directed more funds toward expanding its computing power amid its artificial intelligence efforts.

Tesla's third-quarter 2023 financial report was released on October 18, showing that as of September 30, Tesla held $184 million worth of digital assets, part of its first purchase of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in March 2021.

The latest quarterly results mean the company has not bought or sold any Bitcoin since it sold off about 75% of its holdings in the second quarter of 2022, when it purchased more than 30,000 Bitcoins for $936 million.

An excerpt from Tesla’s third quarter 2023 balance sheet, highlighting its digital asset holdings. Source: Tesla

Tesla, on the other hand, reported that it had “more than doubled” the computing power for its AI projects, citing growing training data sets and shifting the training of its humanoid robot Optimus to AI rather than coded software.

“We have commissioned one of the world’s largest supercomputers to accelerate the pace of our AI development, more than doubling computing power compared to the second quarter.”

Tesla's third-quarter revenue and profit fell short of Wall Street expectations, with total revenue of $23.35 billion. While that was up nearly 9% from the same period last year, it fell short of the $24.38 billion forecast by Zacks Investment Research.

The company’s bottom line also missed estimates, reporting earnings per share (EPS) of $0.66 versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.72.

Total operating expenses in the third quarter were $2.41 billion, an increase of more than 13% from the previous quarter and more than 42.5% from the previous year.

Tesla spent $1.16 billion on research and development in the quarter, up 58% from last year. It attributed the increase to its "Cybertruck, artificial intelligence, and other R&D projects."

Tesla (TSLA) shares continued to fall after hours, falling to a low of $230.19. Source: Google Finance

Tesla shares fell nearly 4.8% on the day to close at $242.68, and fell a further 4.25% to $232.37 in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance data.