Elon Musk Sends Warning To Tesla Short Sellers: 'They Will Be Obliterated'
Tesla Inc. TSLA stock has underperformed the overall market in 2025 with a year-to-date decline of 11.2%. With the company rolling out robotaxis in several regions of the United States, CEO Elon Musk has a warning for investors betting against the electric vehicle company.
Musk Issues Warning
Musk has promised that Tesla will have autonomous vehicles for several years, and with the latest robotaxi rollouts in several large cities, the company could be on its way.
To have autonomous vehicles nationwide, the company will need approval from regulators and support from the Trump administration.
Tesla influencer and retail shareholder advocate Alexandra Merz, also known as TeslaBoomerMama, recently shared a list of the top short sellers of Tesla stock.
The list includes MUFG Securities, Jane Street Group and Citadel Advisors as the top three companies based on the net short position in the stock. All three have calls and puts, as these companies are market makers offering exposure to both sides for their clients and investors.
The list also includes groups like Key Group Holdings, Owl Creek Asset Management, and Clean Energy Transition, which only have puts on Tesla according to the chart.
Merz said MUFG Securities is in the new number one spot for a net short position in Tesla.
“Most of the others on this list are unchanged from Q1, with Banque Pictet (was #3, now #21) sensibly decreasing their short position,” Merz tweeted.
The tweet from Merz caught Musk’s attention.
“If they don’t exit their short position before Tesla reaches autonomy at scale, they will be obliterated,” Musk said.
Given Musk’s comments, the big question now turns to when will Tesla reach autonomy at scale. One X user asked the Grok chatbot.
“Elon Musk hasn’t specified an exact timeline in that comment, but his recent posts indicate major FSD improvements in September 2025, with the Austin robotaxi build ~6 months ahead. Large-scale autonomy could arrive by late 2025 or early 2026, pending safety and regulations. Timelines often shift,” Grok said.
Musk’s History With Short Sellers
Short sellers are nothing new for Tesla and neither is Musk calling out anyone betting against his company. In fact, Musk once used the same “obliterated” wording in response to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shorting Tesla stock.
Leaked texts between Gates and Musk in 2022 revealed that Gates was short Tesla stock. Musk refused to discuss philanthropic efforts with the billionaire as a result.
“Sorry, But I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive, short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.”
While it is unknown if Gates is still short Tesla stock today, Musk has poked fun at the billionaire over the years.
Musk also poked fun at hedge funds and investors shorting the stock by issuing “short shorts” merchandise previously.
According to Benzinga Pro data, 2.56% of the Tesla stock float is short. While this represents a small percentage, the data shows that 71.99 million Tesla shares are short, which is valued at over $24 billion.
Investors who have shorted Tesla stock have experienced periods of profit, such as this year and during feuds between Trump and Musk. However, over the long run, most short sellers have lost or are down on their positions, betting against Tesla.
TSLA Price Action
Tesla stock is down 0.8% to $336.44 on Thursday versus a 52-week trading range of $202.59 to $488.54. Tesla stock is down 11.2% year-to-date in 2025. The stock is up 67% over the last year and up over 200% over the last five years.
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