Tesla's Q3 Free Cash Flow Was +$1.53B After Wall Street Expected a Burn of About $4.9B

Tesla's Q3 2026 update (21 Oct 2026) reports free cash flow of $1,531 million, about +$1.53B. Yahoo, citing Bloomberg, put the consensus near a $4.92 billion burn. Total revenue was $28,046 million, about $28.05B. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.48; CNBC, citing LSEG, said $0.43 was expected. Capital expenditures were $4,732 million, about $4.73B. Yahoo put the quarterly capex consensus near $7.96B. Optimus production began in Fremont on the high-volume lines. Active FSD subscriptions were 1.74 million. Tesla plans to reach 400 MW of AI training compute by year-end. About $2.6B came from working-capital timing: the cash-flow statement's changes in operating assets and liabilities net to +$2,590 million.