After terrible results, cheeky Tesla wants to raise capital

Tesla CEO Elon Musk often complains about the rigours of public markets. Tesla, he says, suffers from the requirement to produce quarterly results and from shareholders' short-term expectations.

He's wrong. In fact, the evidence suggests that public markets have been unusually accommodating to Tesla. The automaker has repeatedly delivered operating losses, yet its share price has risen steadily from less than $40 in 2012 to $250 today (down from highs of $380 or so in 2017). The bond market has poured capital into Tesla and it has been allowed to burn enormous piles of cash with hardly any negative consequences. The public has surely been far kinder to Tesla than a hard-nosed private equity firm would have been.

Now, after delivering one of its worst-ever quarterly losses, Tesla is making noises about raising fresh capital. And, despite Tesla's ongoing production and logistics issues, falling sales, and huge losses, it's very likely going to succeed at raising that capital. Public markets have been very good to Elon Musk.