Is Tesla nearly bankrupt?
One needs to understand something about Tesla that few Wall Street types appreciate. Elon Musk has the unwavering respect of most of Silicon Valley. Stanford calls him an alum even though he only attended two days. Silicon Valley is home to a high concentration of extremely wealthy, very intelligent, well connected people. The center of its universe and mecca, combined, is Stanford. The University and the community are emotionally invested in Tesla. Call it a cult, a very nice, warm and fuzzy cult. One VC has publicly stated that if Elon ever needed money for anything, all he had to do was name a number and a check would be waiting, no questions asked. Furthermore, 95% (number pulled from ass, but with high confidence) of them believe, beyond any doubt, that Global Warming (GW) is very real and Tesla and Elon are seen as the tip of the spear in the fight against GW. Given Tesla is an automobile manufacturer, it has come an amazingly long way in a short period of time, largely due to Elon and his team. The Valley is proud of both, very proud. I seriously doubt they will allow Tesla to fail, just due to cash flow, because Tesla is their baby too. Additionally, Elon also owns 66% of a cash machine called SpaceX. SpaceX has a very real need to park its money in bonds. In the past, SpaceX bought Solar City bonds. I believe when Tesla acquired Solar City, the bonds were paid off. (I am not 100% on that, so you might want to check.) Consequently, given Elon has full control of SpaceX, Tesla can always sell them some bonds. Then, there is a hardy core of cultish stockholders, like me, who keep buying every new issue of stock, because we have the long view and work hard at understanding the company. Granted, the cash burn is more of a bonfire. But, the money is not being pissed away, good money after bad, but quite the opposite. It is being invested in the new manufacturing process ( machine that makes the machine), other infrastructure, strategic acquisitions and the very best people. Making cars is hard. Elon has affirmed that its a tougher nut than rocket science. In addition, Tesla is doing it different than any prior, breaking new ground daily, in some big and innumerably small ways. Innovation rarely proceeds in a straight line and can be plagued by fits and starts. With complex assembly lines, bottlenecks can be vexing and as soon as you clear one, others pop up. But eventually, they will all be properly adjusted and the thing will hum. In addition, of those that own the car, 97% still say they will have no other and remain loyal, those in line for the Model Three still seem unfazed by the additional wait and engineers from around the world still long to work there. Moreover, they still don't advertise much at all, if any. One more thing, realize that it is the most shorted stock and those that are doing so love to spread bad news, no matter how trivial. Then there are people who just want to see Elon and Tesla fail. So there is no shortage of doom and gloom from that quarter. Thus consider the source when you hear something. Check it out. Even if from the likes of me. Finally, in my very biased opinion, the answer to your question is, no. Tesla is not near bankruptcy.