5 things I want to hear from Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the Milken conference

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Sound the alarm bell – we’re about to have a post-earnings Elon Musk sighting.

The annual Milken Conference, held at the Beverly Hills Hilton, is the financial media’s version of the Oscars. It’s elegant, expensive (no goody bags were given to us commoners – we couldn’t accept them anyway!) and very crowded. You never know who you’ll meet at the patio cafe. And you end up leaving with more knowledge about something than when you entered.

This year’s conference promises to be true to form.

Former President Bill Clinton is on the agenda and will likely have some choice words about the upcoming presidential election. Sports greats Magic Johnson and Alex Rodriguez are on chat panels, as is investing titan Ken Griffin of Citadel.

The Yahoo Finance team sincerely, Akiko Fujita, and Yasmin Khorram will be there, reporting live early, from inside the hotel. Our coverage begins at 9am ET on Yahoo Finance, with a series of interviews with big names moving the market.

Of all the action we’ll be a part of, we’re probably most intrigued by Musk’s entry into the star-studded show. The CEO of Tesla (TSLA) will be speaking at 5pm PT on Monday with the famous (and conference presenter) Michael Milken.

Musk is a busy guy, to say the least, and isn’t exactly a regular fixture on the annual conference scene. He famously hates the World Economic Forum event in Davos, for example.

So I suspect he’s coming armed with some things to get off his chest, as he should.

While Tesla shares have risen 22% since its late April earnings report on hopes related to a potential cheap EV, the news flow beyond those numbers has been dire.

The company is in full layoff mode (despite wanting to grow with a new EV, AI and robots…), laying off its head of human resources and its entire Supercharger department – ​​despite the impact on partners like General Motors (GM). The long-delayed Cybertruck has had a major recall.

Tesla seems more in chaos mode than ridiculous mode – and Street would generally agree.

“We believe our concerns around the earnings trajectory remain substantiated, based on Tesla’s new pragmatic approach to new models, raising difficult questions and creating considerable execution risk while leaving limited upside volume,” he said. Emmanuel Rosner, analyst at Deutsche Bank, in a note to clients.

The story continues

Here is a list of items that Musk needs to discuss – and be clear about – to justify the stock’s rise, in this participant’s opinion. If he does, who knows? The room is full of great thinkers, and he can wax poetic about life on Mars or cruel-looking robots that could gently pat a puppy’s bottom.

• How viable is the profitable launch of a robotaxi in the next 12 months? Have you discussed this with regulators?

• Why are you laying off people en masse but promising huge growth with robotaxis, cheaper cars and robots? Don’t you need humans to do this?

• If you consider yourself an AI company, why bother making low-margin cars? Why not abandon car manufacturing operations and license your powerful technology to other automakers to unlock software-like profit margins?

• How long do you plan to stay at Tesla, given your other obligations?

• Tesla recalls have been the norm – how will you ensure that the product quality in a $25,000 Tesla is on par with other cars in the price class?

Brian Sozzi is the executive editor of Yahoo Finance. He is also the host of “Opening bid“podcast. Follow Sozzi on Twitter/X @BrianSozzi and so on LinkedIn. Tips on business, mergers, activist situations or anything else? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com. Are you a CEO and want to participate in Yahoo Finance Live? Email Brian Sozzi.

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