Tesla Q3 2026 earnings: revenue $28.05bn beats forecasts, but profit falls as Optimus spending doubles

Tesla beat Wall Street's forecasts for the third quarter of 2026, reporting adjusted earnings of 48 US cents a share against 43 cents expected and revenue of $28.05 billion against $27.9 billion, CNBC reported from the company's results on Wednesday. The shares still slid more than 3% in after-hours trading, because profit fell sharply as spending on robots and AI more than doubled.

The numbers

Rupee figures use today's dollar rate of Rs 276.86. TechCrunch, comparing net income with a different year-earlier figure of $1.37 billion, put the profit fall at 43%.

Tesla blamed weaker car revenue on lower average selling prices and trouble getting enough batteries to clear its order backlog. Energy revenue fell on tariff-related refunds to customers, according to TechCrunch.

Optimus robots, Cybercab and self-driving

• Optimus: Tesla has started production of its humanoid robot at its Fremont, California factory, in space once used for cars. Elon Musk called it "early production" and said the ramp would be slow and "somewhat bumpy", though he claimed Tesla could make 20,000 a week by the end of 2027.
• Self-driving: active FSD (Supervised) subscriptions rose 67% to 1.74 million. The US price is $99 a month, about Rs 27,400. Tesla's AI chief Ashok Elluswamy said some customer cars could join the robotaxi network "around Q2 next year", another delay on Musk's earlier hope of this year.
• Cybercab: the two-seat robotaxi is still in testing and not sold to individuals. TechCrunch reported Tesla says it will start selling Cybercabs by the end of the year.

The SpaceX question

The results came a day after Musk said on SpaceX's own call that merging his two companies would be a "good idea" and that both boards have formed special committees. On the Tesla call he added nothing: "I think I said everything that should be said yesterday." Our earlier story covers what the Tesla and SpaceX merger talk means.

What it means here

Tesla has no official sales or service network in Pakistan, so the few Teslas on Pakistani roads are private imports. Anyone weighing an imported EV against a petrol car can compare running costs with our fuel cost calculator, and work out the yearly charges once it is on the road with the token tax calculator.