TSLA Stock Sinks Toward Worst Week This Year After Weak Q2 — But CEO Elon Musk Is A 'Big Fan' Of His Insightful Retail Investor Army

Musk also said that SpaceX went public partly to let ordinary investors participate, even as its shares head toward a third straight weekly decline.

• Musk praised Tesla’s retail investors as insightful, patient shareholders with a strong long-term outlook.
• RBC highlighted deeper Tesla-SpaceX integration across Terafab, Starlink, CyberCab and Optimus.
• Musk acknowledged in Tesla's Q2 call “more and more overlap” between his companies, particularly around Terafab.

Tesla, Inc.’s (TSLA) disappointing second-quarter (Q2) results have put its worst week of 2026 in sight, but CEO Elon Musk is appealing to long-term retail shareholders as analysts now focus on the company’s rising integration with SpaceX across AI, robotics, connectivity and semiconductor manufacturing.

TSLA stock has slid 16% this week, putting it on pace for its worst weekly performance since December 2025. However, shares rebounded more than 1% in extended trading on Thursday. 

Elon Musk Praises Tesla Retail Investors 

Tesla investor and influencer Sawyer Merritt shared excerpts on X from a new interview with The Economist, in which Musk praised retail investors: “There are many investors who do take a long-term view,” Musk said. “In fact, I’m a big fan of the retail investors. I find our retail investors, on balance, are very insightful and have very long-term views.”

The comments come at a testing time for Musk’s shareholder base. Tesla shares plunged 15% on Thursday after the EV maker’s Q2 report, extending their monthly decline to about 24% and putting the stock on course for its worst monthly performance since February. SpaceX has also struggled, with its shares down 5% this week and headed for a third consecutive weekly decline just over a month after going public. 

Musk also told The Economist, “one of the reasons I took SpaceX public is so that the public could participate, so they could own a piece of SpaceX,” adding that its former private-company structure severely limited the number of shareholders it could have.

Wall Street Flags Deeper Tesla-SpaceX Overlap 

Tesla reported adjusted Q2 earnings of $0.33 per share, missing Wall Street’s $0.54 estimate, while revenue of $28.24 billion topped expectations of $26.36 billion, even as surging AI and robotics spending pressured margins and pushed free cash flow negative. 

RBC Capital maintained an 'Outperform' rating and $500 price target on Tesla, implying a 56% upside from current levels. The firm said that Q2 margins disappointed due to non-recurring items, pricing pressure, and elevated research and development costs tied to the Optimus and Robotaxi ramps. However, RBC said that the quarter’s key takeaway was “the deepening SpaceX integration across Terafab, Starlink, CyberCab, connectivity and Digital Optimus.” The firm also highlighted the start of construction on Tesla’s Optimus production line in Fremont and plans for a more vertically integrated Optimus v4 facility in Austin targeting an annual capacity of about 10 million robots.

Musk acknowledged the expanding relationship between his companies during Tesla’s earnings call: “There’s more and more overlap, especially with Terafab,” Musk said, referring to the multibillion-dollar chip-manufacturing venture in Texas. He added that any discussion about combining the companies would need to follow the appropriate corporate process.

Terafab Emerges As Key Tesla Growth Bet 

Roth Capital maintained its 'Buy' rating and $505 price target, implying a 58% upside, and said that the broader “Musk ecosystem of companies” depends on Terafab’s success. The firm expects Tesla to invest about $30 billion over two years to reach a monthly capacity of 100,000 wafer starts, saying that lower chip costs will be essential to scaling Optimus production. 

Meanwhile, TD Cowen cut its price target to $460 from $490 but retained a 'Buy' rating, implying a 44% upside, after Tesla missed expectations and failed to deliver sequential operating leverage amid commodity and financing-cost pressures. 

How Do Retail Traders Feel About TSLA?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for TSLA flipped to ‘bearish’ from ‘bullish’ levels before its Q2 results amid a 100% jump in 24-hour message volumes.

One user said, “$TSLA This is Elon's cast off car company, and it looks like the Musk cult has switched over to his rocket company. $SPCX Neither is gonna work out. Let's watch.”

View this Stocktwits post

Another user questioned, “$TSLA Elon driving down the price so SPCX can acquire it?”

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So far this year, Tesla's stock has lagged its "Magnificent Seven" peers, making it the group's worst performer, down about 29%. Even so, Tesla continues to command a premium valuation, trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 170x, by far the highest multiple among the Magnificent Seven stocks.

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