Well, for future projects, they essentially are.
The 2 billion they have left is all they're going to have for the foreseeable future. They really have no way to get any more investment.
What makes matters worse is that their financing costs are going to go up a good bit the first part of next year, so a good deal of that working capital is essentially already spent.
Next year is going to be a very tough year for Tesla. Unless they find some outside investment, which would require someone to sell out, they're at a dead end unless they do some radical restructuring like a stock split.
But that of course would send the stock plummeting and it would in all likelihood take years to recover.
Tesla has been on shaky ground since day one. Next year is going to be a make or break year.
Wasn't Tesla profitable last quarter after payment of debts and taxes? Isn't that exactly what Musk said was going to happen?
I don't invest in individual companies, so no skin in the game here. I don't know that Tesla or Musk's mass of various enterprises make a viable company. A 3rd quarter profit of 311 million dollars is nothing to sneeze at yet it's quite possible to play with finances to make a paper profit when nothing has really changed. I've seen companies make extravagant claims about their products in the "fake it till you make it" style of Silicon Valley business start-up culture. Some have been some terrific flame-outs when those companies manipulate the books and post-up vaporware to make their sales projections look great when in fact they are a sham and the company burns up when it all comes to light. Such as Theranos.
The short sellers could be right and Musk could be blowing smoke our way.
On the other hand, Tesla ARE outselling all competitors in their market and are well positioned to disrupt other car makers business models. GM has already thrown in the towel. When I've seen corporations play money games, they do so by shifting money around and don't show the kinds of real business growth that Tesla has. How they can fake car sales? Or fake that they have moved past production problems and are now facing delivery problems? Or fake the acclaim they are getting by very real customers driving their cars?
Yes, their short term debt load is worrisome. It would be a shame if a technically successful company went under due to playing the debt-financing game too closely. It wouldn't be the first time but it would be a tragedy, a shame and a loss for this society. On a personal level, I've participated in many product development projects. Every one looked like spanking success at the beginning, a disaster in the middle and at the end, pundits said the successful outcome was mundanely obvious. This is where my bias shows because I don't think Tesla is going to fail. Yes, they can fail but I think they have enough resources, including leadership, to pull through.