Tesla's profits plunge despite record revenue and deliveries
Tesla said it "achieved record vehicle deliveries globally" for the third quarter of 2025 with a total of 497,099 vehicles delivered. It also reported a record-breaking revenue of $28.1 billion, which is 12 percent higher than the same quarter in 2024. Tesla's net income, however, slid by 37 percent year-over-year, due to several factors, namely lower EV prices, an increase in spending on AI and other R&D projects, and of course, tariffs. Vaibhav Taneja, the automaker's finance chief, said during the earnings call that tariffs on imported car parts and raw materials cost the company more than $400 million in the third quarter. Taneja added that he expects research and development spending to continue to grow.
During the call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he expects the company to deploy its first robotaxis with no drivers behind the wheel by the end of this year, starting with some parts of Austin. If you'll recall, Tesla launched its first robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas back in June. There have been several reports of the robotaxis running into issues since then, including an instance wherein one drove into a parked car. Musk said Tesla was "obviously being very cautious about the deployment," but that he expects his company to be operating fully driverless vehicles in eight to ten new states before 2025 ends.
Musk revealed, as well, that Tesla's homegrown AI5 artificial intelligence chip will be manufactured both by Samsung in Texas and by TSMC in Arizona. Tesla is apparently aiming to manufacture more than it needs for its electric vehicles and upcoming Optimus robots so that it can use the excess units in its data centers. He clarified that Tesla isn't going to stop using NVIDIA chips, but that it will continue using them in combination with AI5.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/teslas-profits-plunge-despite-record-revenue-and-deliveries-133004231.html?src=rss