- Elon Musk mentioned Warren Buffett, Nvidia, cyborgs, and "Game of Thrones" on Tesla's earnings call.
- The Tesla CEO said he loves his loyal retail investors, but warned them against margin trading.
- Musk is worried about rising credit-card debt and the bewildering economic backdrop.
Elon Musk touched on everything from cyborgs and "Game of Thrones" to Nvidia and Warren Buffett during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
The Twitter owner and Tesla and SpaceX CEO also warned retail investors about the dangers of margin trading, rang the alarm on rising credit-card debt, and said he's totally confused about the state of the global economy.
Here are Musk's 12 best quotes, lightly edited for length and clarity:
1. "Demand is so far off the hook you can't even see the hook." (Musk was discussing Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck.)
2. "I don't have a crystal ball for the global economy. I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow that crystal ball. One day, it seems like the world economy is falling apart. And the next day, everything is fine. I don't know what the hell is going on, to be totally frank. I wish I did."
3. "For a lot of people, they're barely breaking even every month. In fact, if you look at the rise in credit-card debt, they're not breaking even every month. Credit-card debt is freaking scary."
4. "I really see a path to a 5x increase in the value of the company, maybe a 10x. But where things go along the way, the trials and tribulations and the mood of the markets, one cannot predict. So the old adage of buy and hold is right."
5. "I care a lot about the small shareholders, especially ones that have stuck with us through thick and thin. I love you guys. We can't control these macro shocks or the the manic-depressive nature of the stock market. So that's why I recommend against margin loans in times that are turbulent."
6. "Warren Buffett has a saying: Imagine you're living in your house and some crazy, manic-depressive guy comes and stands outside your house and yells property prices at you, and it's a different price every day, but the house is still the same house. So this is a tough market." (Musk was speaking about stock-market volatility.)
7. "Provided you're confident in a company's products or services, when the market panics, buy. And when the market is overly exuberant, you can sell. I'm not recommending you sell, but buy low, sell high."
8. "You see a lot of AI companies doing large language models (LLMs) and whatnot. And I'd say, 'If they're so great, why can't they make a self-driving car?' Because it's harder. That's why."
9. "We're using a lot of Nvidia hardware. We'll actually take it as fast as they'll deliver it to us. Frankly, if they could deliver us enough GPUs, we might not need Dojo. But they can't. They've got so many customers."
10. "By combining a Neuralink implant and a robotic arm or leg, we believe we can give amputees basically a cyborg body that is incredibly capable. The $6 million man in real life. But it won't cost $6 million — a $60,000 man."
11. "It's a game of pennies. It's like 'Game of Thrones' but pennies." (He was speaking about Tesla's cost-cutting efforts.)
12. "Now I know I'm the boy who cried FSD, but man, I think we'll be better than human by the end of this year. That's not to say we're approved by regulators, and that would be in the U.S. because we've got to focus on one market first. I've been wrong in the past, I may be wrong this time." (Musk was discussing Tesla's efforts to perfect a full self-driving mode for its vehicles.)