Tesla third-quarter profit falls to $787 million as revenue is roughly flat

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) reported third-quarter 2026 GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders of $787 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, down from $1,373 million, or 39 cents, a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that revenue was $28.0 billion, roughly flat from a year earlier.

The results, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, were released in a Third Quarter 2026 Update posted on the company's website. The update is attached to the 8-K as Exhibit 99.1.

Here's how the company did:

• Revenue: $28,046 million vs. $28,095 million a year earlier
• GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders: $787 million vs. $1,373 million a year earlier
• GAAP diluted earnings per share: 22 cents vs. 39 cents a year earlier
• Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share: 48 cents vs. 50 cents a year earlier
• Income from operations: $718 million vs. $1,624 million a year earlier
• Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP): $3,900 million vs. $4,227 million a year earlier
• Free cash flow, or operating cash flow less capital expenditures: $1,531 million vs. $3,990 million a year earlier

Costs and revenue lines

Operating expenses rose to $4,776 million from $3,430 million, as research and development spending climbed to $2,761 million from $1,630 million. The company said the increase was driven by Super Intelligence (SI) and other R&D projects, stock-based compensation, including the 2025 CEO Performance Award, and selling, general and administrative costs.

Restructuring and other charges were zero in the quarter, against $238 million a year earlier.

Automotive revenue was $20,560 million, compared with $21,205 million a year earlier. The update cited lower average selling prices, lower regulatory credit revenue and fewer deliveries, partly offset by higher automotive ancillary sales, which it tied to FSD subscriptions.

Energy generation and storage revenue fell to $2,881 million from $3,415 million. The company said the decline was partly due to tariff-related customer refunds.

Services and other revenue rose to $4,605 million from $3,475 million.

Deliveries and storage

Vehicle deliveries totaled 486,532, down 2% from 497,099 a year earlier. Production rose 4%, to 464,391 from 447,450.

Energy storage deployments reached 13.7 GWh, up from 12.5 GWh a year earlier. The company said demand for its Energy Storage business remained strong, with its highest-ever order rate and backlog.

The company said battery availability remained the limiting factor on increasing automotive volumes during the quarter. It also said it had made additional progress in securing future supply.

Cash and capital spending

Operating cash flow was $6,263 million, against $6,238 million a year earlier. Capital expenditures were $4,732 million, up from $2,248 million.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $45,447 million at quarter-end, up from $41,647 million a year earlier. The balance rose $1.9 billion from the prior quarter, which the update attributed primarily to free cash flow of $1.5 billion.

Operations and outlook

The company said it produced and delivered its 10 millionth vehicle. Record production was reached at Gigafactory Berlin.

Robotaxi rides using Cybercabs began on Sept. 3 in Austin. Cumulative unsupervised Robotaxi miles grew eightfold from the prior quarter, and the service reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles by quarter-end.

Active FSD subscriptions reached 1.74 million, up from 1.04 million a year earlier. FSD (Supervised) is now available in nine EU countries after four additional approvals since the end of the second quarter. The company notes that it requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous.

Megafactory Texas began production, with planned capacity of 50 GWh. Volume production of the Tesla Semi began, and Optimus production started in Fremont.

The company said it plans to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year. It expects to start commissioning equipment at its Austin Fab in 2027.

The outlook section contained no figures. The company said it expects that over time its hardware-related profits will be accompanied by an acceleration of SI, software and fleet-based profits.

The update said deliveries and deployments will be affected by aggregate demand, supply chain readiness and how the company allocates vehicles between customer sales and its owned and operated fleet.