Tesla beats Wall Street's earnings expectations, but Elon Musk has a $787 million profit problem

Tesla reported third-quarter common-shareholder profit of $787 million on Wednesday, down 29% from $1.11 billion a year earlier, even as adjusted earnings of 48 cents a share and revenue of $28.05 billion exceeded Wall Street estimates of 43 cents and $27.9 billion. Its stock fell more than 3% after hours. Automotive revenue declined 3% to $20.56 billion, and deliveries totaled 486,532 vehicles, about 2% fewer than a year earlier, as lower prices, battery-production problems and the loss of a U.S. federal EV tax credit hurt demand. Capital expenditure nearly doubled to $3.73 billion for artificial intelligence, the Optimus humanoid robot and other investments, while free cash flow fell 62% to $1.53 billion.