Tesla's profits are under pressure
Source: Business Insider ·
Tesla's operating income fell 56% year over year as AI and research and development costs climbed.
From the source
Tesla's earnings call was on Wednesday, a day after Elon Musk said on SpaceX's earnings call that he'd back a merger.Bloomberg/Getty ImagesTesla is facing some profitability headwinds.Its operating income fell 56% year over year as AI and research and development costs climbed.The company is still in the green, and it surprised earlier this month by delivering 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter.Tesla is still selling plenty of cars. Making the same amount of money on them is getting harder.On Wednesday, the Elon Musk-led automaker reported that its operating income fell 56% year over year to $718 million in the third quarter — below Wall Street's estimates of $746.3 million — while revenue was roughly flat at $28.05 billion.Tesla pointed to higher operating expenses tied to its AI efforts, or "SI"/"Super Intelligence" as Trump prefers, and other R&D projects. Lower regulatory credit revenue and weaker energy storage gross profit also weighed on profitability, while lower vehicle…