Shorting Tesla has suffered heavy losses! The stock price has risen by 17% in two days, with short positions facing a floating loss of $3.5 billion

Tesla's second-quarter new car delivery report released this week exceeded expectations, which is bad news for the company's short sellers.

According to data from S3 Partners, since the release of the second-quarter delivery report, the stock has risen by about 17% in two trading days. Tesla's short sellers have lost approximately $3.5 billion in market value. Looking at the longer term, Tesla's stock price has surged over 70% since hitting a bottom in April this year, making it a painful few months for the short sellers.

Currently, Tesla's short interest accounts for 3.5% of outstanding shares, with a short position of 97 million shares and a nominal value of $22.4 billion.

In late April, Tesla's year-to-date decline reached as high as 44%, making it the worst performer among major tech giants. Currently, it is only about $2 away from recovering its year-to-date losses.

Tesla's delivery data released on Tuesday showed that the company delivered a total of 444,000 new cars in the second quarter, a 4.8% year-on-year decrease. Although this decline is smaller than the 8.5% in the first quarter, it exceeded market expectations of 439,300 vehicles. The total production for the quarter was 411,000 vehicles. Tesla's sales in both China and the United States exceeded expectations. Additionally, Tesla has maintained its position as the top seller of electric vehicles globally.

It is well known that Tesla's automotive business is facing a sales decline. Due to an aging product line and more intense competition than ever before, Tesla has been offering discounts, low-interest or interest-free financing, and other incentives for people to purchase its electric vehicles for several months. Meanwhile, Tesla's latest model Cybertruck has had a slow start, with quality issues leading to four voluntary recalls in less than a year in the United States.

Analysts believe that while Tesla's latest delivery volume report indicates that demand for its cars is still stronger than expected, the company's performance information is limited. Tesla's financial situation will be more clearly shown in the earnings report to be released later this month. Analysts expect Tesla's revenue to decline by 2.9% to $24.2 billion, compared to a 9% decline in the first quarter.

This week, in addition to the positive delivery data for Tesla, its solar and energy storage business also saw new breakthroughs in the second quarter, with a record high in new battery storage capacity. Data released by Tesla's energy subsidiary, Tesla Energy, shows that 9.4GWh of battery storage products were deployed in the second quarter of this year, setting a new quarterly record with a 129% increase quarter-on-quarter and a 157% increase year-on-year, showing remarkable growth.

Morgan Stanley believes that, compared to delivery volume, Tesla's energy storage business is the "ace in the hole" for the company. Holding the "key card" of solar and energy storage, Tesla will become a key player in the next round of AI investments. The electricity demand brought by the AI boom will make Tesla a key participant in the U.S. energy market.

Furthermore, Tesla's second-generation humanoid robot, Optimus, made its debut in Shanghai this week, also boosting market enthusiasm. Musk had previously stated at a shareholder meeting last month that he believes Optimus will bring huge profits to the company. He said that Tesla has the capability to produce approximately 100 million Optimus robots per year. If Tesla has a 10% market share and each robot is sold for $20,000, Tesla could earn $1 trillion in profit annually when mass-producing themElon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has seen his net worth increase by about $15 billion in the past two days. This week, he responded to the criticism of "shorting Tesla" on X platform by saying:

Once Tesla fully solves the self-driving problem and mass-produces the Optimus robot, anyone still holding a short interest will be annihilated, even Bill Gates will be no exception.