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Speaker 1: Well, as we've been reporting today's shareholders and Tiler proved

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Speaker 1: a three for one stock split, joining us to talk

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Speaker 1: about this more Ludlow Bloomberg Technology Reporter and the timing

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Speaker 1: of this it looks to be pretty good. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it was expected. You know, no one thought that

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Speaker 1: the resolution wouldn't pass, partly because it was so telegraphed.

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Speaker 1: Tesla tweeted in March that they wanted to do it,

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Speaker 1: and the annual shareholder meeting was only scheduled a month ago,

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Speaker 1: so you know, we saw some muted share reaction and

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Speaker 1: after hours, but it's important because it lowers the price

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Speaker 1: to around three hundred dollars a share. I would note

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Speaker 1: very importantly for any shareholders listening. They did not set

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Speaker 1: any dates or terms and when the stock split comes effective,

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Speaker 1: so we still need to hear more from the company.

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Speaker 1: But they've done it before in August and that was

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Speaker 1: effective a five for one stock split, and it kind

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Speaker 1: of democratizes access and it has proven to be a

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Speaker 1: boost for the stock over a longer period in the past.

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Speaker 1: Even though it was made official today, I think the

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Speaker 1: market had been in the process of discounting the likelihood

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Speaker 1: of this outcome. So the question becomes was it necessary

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Speaker 1: to kind of put the defibrillator on Tesla shares? I mean,

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Speaker 1: is it going to resuscitate the stock and bring it

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Speaker 1: back to life as it were? Yeah, I mean taking

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Speaker 1: the kind of series of events from the annual shareholder

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Speaker 1: meeting overall, the main takeaway you have is just how

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Speaker 1: crucial the retail investors in all of this. You know,

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Speaker 1: Tesla's launched this new platform for retail shareholder engagement so

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Speaker 1: they can talk more regularly with management. Retail investors were

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Speaker 1: very present in person at the factory. You know, often

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Speaker 1: these annual meetings are kind of a dud, right, guys,

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Speaker 1: We've covered so many of them where they're just not interesting.

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Speaker 1: But the Tesla shareholder base is so engaged, and many

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Speaker 1: retail investors just don't have the capital right to buy

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Speaker 1: stock in meaningful volumes at thousand dollars a share. Bringing

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Speaker 1: it down three hundred does make it a little more accessible.

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Speaker 1: M One interesting point is that you know, Tesla has

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Speaker 1: not done share buy backs, and that was one of

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Speaker 1: the ideas that was floated during this shareholder meeting during

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Speaker 1: the Q and a U, But this is kind of

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Speaker 1: a similar mechanism you know, for for I guess, not

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Speaker 1: returning capital, but but making it an easier ride for

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Speaker 1: the shareholder. Well, there's a lot of enthusiasm, as you say,

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Speaker 1: for Tislas stock among retail and visitors. But what about

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Speaker 1: TISLA bonds. Are they do for an upgrade? About now? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's an interesting one. I mean, Tesla has always it's

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Speaker 1: cash on hand is not a problem, right, And I

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Speaker 1: think what's really interesting is, you know, Meta, the parent

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Speaker 1: company Facebook, went to the debt markets for the first

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Speaker 1: time today. I'm laughing because it wasn't the story I

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Speaker 1: expected when I woke up. You know, Apple has has

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Speaker 1: done its usual annual tapping of the debt markets. Conditions

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Speaker 1: such as they are, the credit market improved, Tesla has

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Speaker 1: kind of been modest but consistent in debt markets. It

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Speaker 1: has a lot of cash, it's it's well, it's cash

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Speaker 1: flow is pretty strong, right, and so you know, it's

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Speaker 1: in a position where it's it's in an enviable position

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Speaker 1: where it can invest its own cash and maybe they will,

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Speaker 1: maybe they won't, but it's not something that was really

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Speaker 1: discussed at the shareholding meetings. So away from trying to

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Speaker 1: excite to retail investors, about Tesla Starck. I'm wondering whether

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Speaker 1: we got a little bit more visibility into the company's

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Speaker 1: business as a part of this meeting. I mean, what

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Speaker 1: do we know about where they are in strategy? And

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Speaker 1: I'm also curious as whether or not the subject of

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Speaker 1: Twitter came up at all. There's so much we have

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Speaker 1: such a little time. But you know, broadly, yes, the

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Speaker 1: plan is to build many more factories. Musk said they

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Speaker 1: could announce another factory location this year. He reiterated this

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Speaker 1: idea that ultimately they have this long term target to

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Speaker 1: build twenty million evs a year by thirty To do that,

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Speaker 1: they'll need around a dozen factories, he says, which gives

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Speaker 1: you the kind of idea of the pace at which

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Speaker 1: they build. You know, they're working very hard on batteries.

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Speaker 1: They're working very hard on artificial intelligence for a future

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Speaker 1: where Tesla's drive themselves and so their fleets. You don't

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Speaker 1: own it as a consumer car on Twitter. Yes, he

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Speaker 1: was asked about it. That's the joy of the shareholder meeting.

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Speaker 1: There's a Q and A. He said that he really

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Speaker 1: understands the product that he gets himself in trouble on

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Speaker 1: there um, but that he felt he could really help Twitter,

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Speaker 1: which I thought was a very interesting comment because this

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Speaker 1: week he is countersued Twitter over this this deal, and he's,

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Speaker 1: you know, each side has filed a number of subpoenas.

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Speaker 1: It's getting quite ugly in the legal forum. And yet

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Speaker 1: here he is at the Tesla shareholder M's saying, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I think I can really help this company, which was

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Speaker 1: an interesting reaction. Do we get any news. I know

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Speaker 1: we got some news about Cybertruck, the Optimus Root, a

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Speaker 1: couple of new products. Tell us about that. Oh yes,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about cyber Ttruck. I mean, he's

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Speaker 1: always doing fighting talk and he kind of mocks himself

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Speaker 1: about his previously missed projections and timelines. But Cybertruck is

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Speaker 1: on track to be starting production in the second half

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Speaker 1: halfway through next year. They're going to start installing the

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Speaker 1: factory um the equipment at the Austin factory in the

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Speaker 1: next couple of months. One key thing when the Cybertruck

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Speaker 1: was unveiled in two thousand nineteen, I was there, if

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Speaker 1: you remember, a metal ball got thrown at the window

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Speaker 1: and it smashed, which wasn't supposed to happen. But the

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Speaker 1: deposit price was only and the sticker price was around

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Speaker 1: forty dollars and must basically claim clean and said that's

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Speaker 1: just not going to happen. The cybertruck they build will

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Speaker 1: be very much more expensive, the deposit much higher, and

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Speaker 1: that of course accounts for inflation and the supply chain

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Speaker 1: crunch we've seen in the last two and a half years.

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Speaker 1: And it's always a pleasure. Thanks so much for making

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Speaker 1: time to chat with us. Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow there he

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Speaker 1: covers technology from our bureau in San Francisco, joining us

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Speaker 1: here on Daybreak Asia