Tesla Reportedly Can't Find $1.4 Billion, But We're Sure It's Fine

Typically, it's considered a big problem if someone loses $1.4 billion. That is, after all, a whole lot of money, at least to poors like you and me. So it's understandable that you would read the new Financial Times report claiming Tesla can't account for a missing $1.4 billion and be worried something's wrong with the federal government's favorite automaker. It's probably fine, though. Accounting departments lose track of money all the time. This is probably all just a political hit job from those Marxists SJWs who run the far-left Financial Times. 

Were you to take FT at its word, the money Tesla spent on assets in the second half of 2024 doesn't match the value of the assets it allegedly purchased and is, in fact, off by about $1.4 billion. Specifically, Tesla claimed it spent $6.3 billion on "purchases of property and equipment excluding finance leases, net of sales," but on its balance sheet claimed its PP&E value only increased by $4.9 billion. But while that looks bad at first glance, it's also entirely possible Tesla simply sold some property or equipment, thus lowering PP&E on the balance sheet. It could also have other valid explanations that we don't know about. 

Tesla didn't actually report any sales or changes that would explain the discrepancy, but that doesn't mean those reports aren't simply a little late, just like the new Tesla Roadster. If you assumed something sketchy was going on, that says more about you than it does about Tesla and Elon Musk.

Looking at Tesla's capital expenditure on PP&E compared to the reported change in asset value on the balance sheet since 2019, you can see there's nothing to worry about. The quarterly numbers have been mismatched for years. Sometimes asset value increases more than capital expenditure. Sometimes it's a little less. Sure, we've never seen a difference anywhere close to the most recent one, but ultimately, it will all even out. Probably. Maybe. When Elon reveals something huge early in the second quarter this year that explains it all, all the people asking questions about a mere $1.4 billion are going to feel like idiots.

After all, why would a company with $37 billion in cash raise another $6 billion in debt if it wasn't planning something huge? You also can't forget that Tesla is owned by Elon Musk, an honest man who has never so much as stretched the truth and is currently fighting fraud and corruption with President Trump. What he's found has been appalling, like dead people pretending they're still actually alive to keep collecting Social Security. Would a man renowned for his integrity allow anything sketchy at one of his own companies? Of course not. If there actually is any money missing, domestic terrorists are probably behind it. 

In an attempt to spread more FUD, FT spoke with Jacek Welc, a corporate finance professor at the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences, who said the "combination of excess cash flow and ongoing capital raising" is often a red flag, and it's a behavior that matches with 17 other examples, including Germany's Wirecard scandal, China's Longtop Financial scandal and the UK's NMC Health scandal. According to Welc, those "allegedly healthy (but in reality inflated) operating cash flows tend to be matched by significantly positive financing cash flows (and a seeming 'cash cow' appears to require large amounts of new debt and/or new equity financing)." 

Berlin, however, is in Germany, and Germany hates Elon Musk for selflessly trying to bring freedom and clean cars to Europe. So Welc is obviously biased and anti-American. Plus, he's a professor, which means he studies this stuff for a living, and as we all know, experts on any given subject actually know the least. Tesla's probably just planning something really cool and just doesn't want to tell us about it yet. It's probably fine. Elon Musk is so rich, he didn't even need that $1.4 billion anyway. 

Clearly, the only smart thing to do is listen to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and buy more Tesla stock. It won't ever be this affordable again.