The Tesla light show on December 29, 2025, in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China (VCG/Getty Images)

Tesla deliveries drop for second straight year; stock on pace to match longest losing streak ever

BYD outsold Tesla in battery electric vehicles for the first time in 2025.

1/2/26 9:07AM

Tesla Q4 deliveries fell 16% to 418,227 vehicles, falling short of estimates, while its full-year numbers dropped 8.5% to 1,636,129, marking the electric vehicle company’s second annual sales decline in a row.

Shares of the company fell 2.8% in afternoon trading, putting the stock on pace for its seventh straight day in the red. The stock has dropped 11% over that time. The last time Tesla slipped for seven straight sessions, its longest losings streak on record, was April 2024.

Meanwhile, Chinese competitor BYD saw its 2025 battery electric vehicle sales increase 28% to 2.3 million, overtaking Tesla for the first time on a calendar year basis.

After a record third quarter, in which the sunsetting $7,500 federal EV tax credit pulled forward demand, Tesla’s lower numbers represent a disappointing aftermath, wherein its cars and electric vehicles generally have effectively become more expensive, reducing demand. At the same time, CEO Elon Musk has been deemphasizing Tesla’s EV business, focusing the future of the company instead on autonomy, AI, and robots.

Ahead of the results, Tesla released its own compilation of analyst estimates that pegged the Q4 numbers at about 423,000 and full-year deliveries at 1.6 million. The move was widely seen as a way to lower investor expectations for the quarter, since other consensus estimates by Bloomberg and FactSet were notably higher. Tesla also released lower-cost, stripped-down versions of its Model Y and Model 3, whose new prices are still more than older versions with the federal tax credit.

On the company’s last earnings call, Musk said Tesla is so confident in the future success of its Full Self-Driving technology that it planned to increase vehicle production “as fast as we reasonably can,” potentially reaching a 3 million annualized production rate within two years.

For now, Tesla has not reached its goal of removing safety drivers from its Austin Robotaxi vehicles, and demand for its vehicles is not there.

Jon Keegan5h

OpenAI reportedly delaying erotica feature to focus on “gains in intelligence”

OpenAI is delaying its planned “adult mode,” as it seeks to shore up ChatGPT’s core capabilities before the chatbot can generate erotic content.

A source within OpenAI told tech news site Sources that the company will miss its Q1 target for launching the feature:

“We’re pushing out the launch of adult mode so we can focus on work that is a higher priority for more users right now, including gains in intelligence, personality improvements, personalization, and making the experience more proactive.”

The company said it still believes in “treating adults like adults,” but said it wants to get the experience right. OpenAI has been testing user age estimation technology ahead of the planned release.

Liz Reid on where Google Search ends and Gemini begins

“We’re pushing out the launch of adult mode so we can focus on work that is a higher priority for more users right now, including gains in intelligence, personality improvements, personalization, and making the experience more proactive.”

Rani Molla

Why Apple is moving into the lower-cost smartphone and laptop markets

The luxury tech maker is heading down-market.

Man taking picture of Times Square using smart phone, personal perspective view

Ads have entered the chat

Advertisers are crowding into the next digital frontier.

Rani Molla8h

Jon Keegan8h

Anthropic will sue the Pentagon over supply chain risk designation, Amodei says

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a public post that the company will sue the Pentagon after receiving a letter from the Department of Defense officially designating Anthropic as “a supply chain risk to America’s national security.”

Amodei says that the effect of the unprecedented designation for an American company is more narrow than originally described, and that most of its customers would not be affected.

“With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.”

Amodei says the company does not “believe this action is legally sound, and we see no choice but to challenge it in court.”

The CEO also apologized for statements he made in a leaked internal memo in which he claimed that the company was targeted because it didn’t show “dictator-style praise” for President Trump.

Where things stand with the Department of War

“With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.”

Amodei says the company does not “believe this action is legally sound, and we see no choice but to challenge it in court.”

The CEO also apologized for statements he made in a leaked internal memo in which he claimed that the company was targeted because it didn’t show “dictator-style praise” for President Trump.

$40B💰

Rani Molla11h

SoftBank is going to great lengths to double down on OpenAI — including taking on significant debt. After completing a $40 billion investment to become one of the ChatGPT maker’s largest backers, the Japanese conglomerate is now seeking a roughly $40 billion loan with a 12-month term, Bloomberg reports.

The financing would be SoftBank’s largest-ever dollar-denominated deal. The AI investment has helped lift profits, but it is also pressuring SoftBank’s credit profile.