Tesla missed profit estimates again — and its bitcoin hasn't moved in three years

Tesla has released its second-quarter 2026 financial results: revenue hit a record and beat estimates, while profit came in well short of what analysts expected. Separately, the company confirmed that its bitcoin holdings didn't change by a single coin during the quarter.

Revenue Up, Profit Down

Tesla's quarterly revenue came in at $28.24 billion — up 26% year-over-year and comfortably ahead of the roughly $26.4 billion Wall Street expected. But non-GAAP earnings per share landed at just $0.33, versus the $0.53-0.55 analysts were looking for — down nearly 18% year-over-year. GAAP net income fell 5% to $1.11 billion, while operating income collapsed 57% to $398 million, with operating margin narrowing to 1.4%.

Why Profit Fell

The main driver was a sharp jump in spending on AI, autonomous driving, and manufacturing expansion: capital expenditures surged 142% year-over-year to $5.79 billion, pushing free cash flow to a negative $1.09 billion. Gross margin slipped to 16.8% from 17.2% a year earlier, as the average vehicle selling price fell and regulatory-credit revenue declined.

Tesla's Bitcoin: Unchanged for Nearly Four Years

The company confirmed it has neither bought nor sold bitcoin since 2022 — its balance sheet still shows 11,509 BTC. Bitcoin's own price fell roughly 14% during the quarter (from about $83,000 to $58,000), forcing Tesla to record a $112 million paper impairment loss. The company originally bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in early 2021, sold about 75% of that position in 2022, and hasn't touched the remainder since.

“Tesla has neither bought nor sold any bitcoin since 2022.”

— From Tesla's Q2 2026 filing, July 22, 2026

Quote source: CoinDesk, July 22, 2026.

Why It Matters

Tesla remains one of the largest public corporate bitcoin holders, even though its crypto story stopped being an active strategy long ago — the company simply holds what's left of its position without managing it further. We rounded up who else makes the list of biggest bitcoin holders in 2026 in a separate piece. For Tesla stock investors, this news is mostly background noise right now: the market reacted primarily to the profit miss — shares fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading — not to the fate of a long-dormant bitcoin balance.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.