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Tesla is set to report third-quarter vehicle production and delivery numbers on Wednesday. 

Analysts are expecting Elon Musk‘s automaker to report about 463,310 deliveries, according to estimates compiled by FactSet StreetAccount. That would include about 435,900 of Tesla’s Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs.

Tesla reported deliveries of 435,059 and production of 430,488 vehicles for the same period a year ago, before it was selling the Cybertruck. More recently, Tesla reported deliveries of 443,956 and production of 410,831 vehicles for the second quarter of 2024.

If Tesla meets analysts’ expectations that would represent a 6.5% year-over-year increase for deliveries after declines in the first and second quarters of 2024.

Deliveries are not defined in Tesla’s financial disclosures, but they are the closest approximation to units sold reported by the company.

In the third quarter, as it did earlier this year, Tesla continued to offer a variety of incentives and financing plans to drive sales volumes, particularly in the largest market for EVs in the world, mainland China.

Tesla hasn’t given specific guidance for the full year of deliveries in 2024, but the company has said it expects a lower delivery growth rate this year versus last. Wells Fargo, pointing to this lack of guidance, said in a note that it’s expecting 1.63 million full-year deliveries for Tesla and third-quarter deliveries at around 440,000, below consensus.

Goldman Sachs last week said it expects Tesla deliveries and production “to come in-line with consensus, largely driven by the strength in the China market.” Goldman Sachs recommended buying call options ahead of the Wednesday report.

Robotaxi day in focus

Shares in the EV maker are up more than 20% over the past month, in anticipation that deliveries could improve year over year and sequentially in the third quarter, and ahead of the company’s robotaxi day on Oct. 10.

Tesla plans to host investors and fans at its “We, Robot” marketing event at a Warner Bros. Discovery movie studio in Los Angeles.

The automaker is expected to show off the design of a “dedicated robotaxi,” which Musk has referred to previously as the CyberCab. Tesla may also provide updates on its humanoid robotics project “Optimus” and other automotive and AI-driven products and services.

Tesla EV sales and revenue fell in the first half of 2024, and the company still has yet to deliver a self-driving system that can function as a robotaxi without a human driver at the wheel ready to steer or brake at any time. Tesla also renamed its premium driver assistance option to Full Self-Driving Supervised, tacking on a disclaimer-style term at the end.

Meanwhile, several rivals in the autonomous vehicle industry have begun producing robotaxis, and operating commercial robotaxi services. Rivals include Alphabet-owned Waymo in the U.S., and Pony.ai and Baidu in China. Amazon-owned Zoox is preparing a launch of a commercial robotaxi service in the U.S. as well.

Tesla brand erosion

Some customer interest in buying Tesla vehicles has been chilled by the brand’s strong association with Musk. 

The company’s favorability among both liberal and conservative consumers fell in July, according to CivicScience. Tesla favorability dropped with Democrats to 18% in July, down from 39% in January, and it declined among Republicans to 22%, down from 36% in January. 

Musk — who also leads SpaceX, X and xAI — has long shared provocative posts on social media, but in recent years, he’s become less filtered and more vociferous online about his right-wing political beliefs.

In July, he publicly endorsed former President Donald Trump, and he frequently posts screeds on X concerning illegal immigration, election fraud, crime, violence and other flashpoint issues.

He has shared political misinformation and deepfakes with his massive online following on X, according to reports by The Associated Press, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times and others. Before Musk acquired Twitter, now known as X, his feed focused more on Tesla and SpaceX, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

Among the posts Musk recently spread on X were false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets. The Springfield Police Division, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and other local groups have all said the claims were baseless.

It remains to be seen whether left-leaning customers’ view of Musk will weigh on deliveries this year. Pew Research has found that Democrats have a much more favorable view of battery-electric vehicles and are more likely to buy them than Republicans in the U.S.

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Figma CEO says AI superintelligence is not a looming threat to the company

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Figma CEO says AI superintelligence is not a looming threat to the company

Figma CEO Dylan Field on IPO debut: Design is going public today

Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said Thursday that artificial intelligence doesn’t pose a serious threat to the future of the design software company, which is on the verge of debuting on the public markets.

“We’re in this moment where you might, if you’re singularity-pilled, go, ‘Hey, superintelligence is coming and it’ll be able to do things that no human can do,” Field told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I have a harder time believing that we’re going to approach that really quickly right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of the picture.”

Figma is slated to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIG” on Thursday. Last week, the company estimated that it would price shares in the range of $25 to $28, and on Wednesday it priced above that range at $33 a share.

The offering values Figma, which ranked No. 45 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, at $19.3 billion.

The company was supposed to be acquired by Adobe for $20 billion, but the deal was scrapped in December 2023 after regulators objected.

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So-called “superintelligence,” a type of artificial intelligence that would be more powerful than the human brain, has recently become a growing focus among technology companies.

Field told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that the company’s “complex” graphics engine and other aspects of its technology make it difficult to be replaced by superintelligence.

“I think that’s not stuff that you can learn from looking at code and sort of various places on the internet,” Field said. “It’s not part of the pre-training data mix. I believe that doing that at scale — it’s quite difficult.”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been especially vocal about the potential for superintelligence, declaring in a Wednesday memo that the technology will serve as a tool for “individual empowerment” over automation and efficiency.

Meta recently created a lab to pursue superintelligence, and Zuckerberg has poured billions of dollars into building a roster of top AI talent.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed reporting to this story.

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Roblox stock soars 16% after revenue beat, strong user growth

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Roblox stock soars 16% after revenue beat, strong user growth

Thiago Prudêncio | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Roblox stock soared 16% Thursday after the company reported second-quarter revenue that beat expectations amid strong user growth.

The gaming platform saw $1.44 billion in net bookings, up 51% over the year prior. Analysts polled by LSEG expected $1.24 billion in net bookings for the quarter.

User and engagement numbers were also strong for the company, with daily active users at 111.8 million, up 41% year-over-year, and hours engaged at 27.4 billion, up 58% year-over-year.

StreetAccount expected 106 million DAUs.

“Our year on year growth this quarter is a reflection of our strategic investments in infrastructure and performance, discovery, and the virtual economy, which continue to create fertile conditions for creators to thrive as part of a healthy, interconnected ecosystem,” said CEO David Baszucki in a release.

Baszucki added that the company is looking to grab 10% of the global gaming content market.

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Roblox raised its booking guidance for the third quarter and now expects between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion. FactSet expected $1.42 billion in third-quarter bookings.

The gaming platform did report a net loss of $279.38 million, a loss of 41 cents per share. Roblox had a net loss of $205.88 million, a loss of 32 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

The platform rolled out new age verification tools two weeks ago, as the broader gaming industry and app stores have faced regulatory pressure to improve safety for young users and limit access to certain types of content.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said the age-estimation tools will help keep younger users from accessing “something that should be limited to an older audience — 13 and over.”

Kaufman said having more mature content opportunities will help teens and adults stay on Roblox instead of moving to other platforms.

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Meta, Microsoft roar higher on strong earnings as AI spending booms

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Meta, Microsoft roar higher on strong earnings as AI spending booms

META CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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Shares of Meta soared 12% and Microsoft popped 5% on Thursday, after the companies reported better-than-expected earnings that beat on top and bottom lines.

Microsoft topped the $4 trillion market cap benchmark with the move, joining Nvidia in the club.

Both Meta and Microsoft have been investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure in recent years, and the companies said they expect to continue to shell out billions in capital expenditures.

Meta said capital expenditures will range between $66 billion and $72 billion for the full year, raising the low end of the company’s previous estimate of between $64 billion and $72 billion. Microsoft sees over $30 billion in fiscal first quarter capital expenditures and assets acquired through finance leases, while analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected $24.23 billion.

Analysts at Citi said the companies’ increased capital expenditures will likely be a boon for chipmakers. Microsoft makes up roughly 8% of Advanced Micro Devices‘ sales, while Meta makes up about 2% of Broadcom’s sales, the analysts said.

“We believe AVGO and AMD will be the primary beneficiaries of Microsoft’s and Meta’s increased capex,” they wrote in a Thursday note.

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In addition to increased capital expenditures, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on an AI hiring blitz, highlighted by a $14.3 billion investment into the data-labeling startup Scale AI and the launch of its new Meta Superintelligence Labs unit.

Morgan Stanley analysts said they “applaud the effort” and are pleased with the state of Meta’s core business, but they remain a little wary of Zuckerberg’s AI spending.

“On one hand, the core business is so strong that it’s paying for all the new AI talent and infra several times over, but on the other hand the cavalier nature by which Zuckerberg is throwing money around is a bit unnerving, especially if things don’t come together as planned with the new superintelligence team,” the analysts wrote.

Barclays analysts said Microsoft’s generative AI scaling is still playing out, but the strong demand for its data center infrastructure continues to point to ongoing momentum for the quarters ahead. They maintained their overweight rating on the stock.

“With its strong Q4 FY25 results, MSFT confirmed its unique status in the software space and will likely continue to be one of the core holdings by investors,” they wrote in a note Wednesday.

Microsoft reported $76.44 billion in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, up 18% year over year. The company said net income increased to $27.23 billion, or $3.65 per share, from $22.04 billion a year ago.

Meta reported $47.52 billion in revenue for its second quarter, up 22% year over year. Its net income rose 36% year over year to $18.34 billion, or $7.14 per share.

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