Tesla Asian supplier shares fall after mixed Q3 earnings, cautious outlook

 Tesla’s Asian suppliers fell on Thursday after the electric vehicle maker clocked mixed third-quarter earnings and presented a cautious outlook on its robotics and chipmaking ambitions. 

Electronics component makers and battery suppliers were the worst hit in the group, as were auto parts suppliers. 

South Korean battery suppliers LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI fell 3% and 4.5%, respectively. Chip supplier Samsung Electronics, with whom Tesla recently signed a $16.5 billion chipmaking partnership, fell 3.3%.

In Japan, battery technology supplier Panasonic fell 3%, while auto parts supplier Harada slid nearly 5%. 

China’s CATL, which was among Tesla’s biggest battery suppliers, fell 5.5% in Hong Kong trade, extending losses after a 11% wipeout this week on soft quarterly earnings. 

Tesla beat on third-quarter profit and revenue. But the company’s net income still fell sharply from last year, and it cut its full-year capital expenditure forecast to $20 billion from $25 billion.

CEO Elon Musk also sought to “temper expectations” on the automaker’s Optimus robot, stating that the humanoid bot was yet to be “truly useful for open-ended tasks.” 

Musk also said Tesla’s robotaxi and cybercab offerings would only factor into revenue by mid-to-late 2027, and flagged steep costs for a chipmaking venture– Terafab– with SpaceX. 

Tesla shares fell 3% in after-hours trade following Musk’s comments on the earnings call. They had initially risen 1% following Tesla’s Q3 beat.