Tesla cuts spending target as profits fall

Tesla’s third-quarter revenue was essentially flat at $28.05 billion, while net profit fell 43% from a year earlier to $787 million. It also lowered its 2026 capital-spending target from more than $25 billion to about $20 billion, a meaningful retreat for a company pitching its future around artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, and humanoid robots. Capital spending is the money used to build the factories, computing capacity, and equipment behind those plans; Tesla spent $4.7 billion in the quarter, more than twice the prior-year level but well below what analysts expected. Lower-than-expected quarterly capital spending helped Tesla generate $1.53 billion in free cash flow rather than the cash burn investors anticipated, but it leaves a sharper question over how quickly the company can turn its expensive new bets into businesses.