Longtime Tesla bull Ross Gerber sells $60M in shares of electric vehicle giant, citing falling confidence: ‘Nobody wants an Elon Musk robot’ – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Long duration Tesla Inc. TSLA investor and Gerber Kawasaki’s Wealth CEO Ross Gerber sold about $60 million worth of Tesla stock. Gerber cited a lack of interest in the company’s cars and robots as the main reason for his decision.

What happened:Gerber, a vocal critic of Elon MuskGerber revealed that his investment fund still holds a $50 million stake in the company. He expressed doubts about Tesla’s ability to meet its sales targets, dismissing optimistic claims about the company’s robotics and self-driving technology. Gerber said this in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Friday.

Gerber said: “Over time, I’ve kind of lowered my position because I just don’t have the same confidence that they’re going to achieve the goals that were set for Tesla several years ago and even recently, which is really to sell more cars.”

Other investors have also grown skeptical of Tesla, whose stock has fallen more than 15% this year due to declining sales, increased competition in China and Musk’s legal troubles. Gerber noted that the used-car market is flooded with old Teslas, making it difficult to sell your own vehicle for a fair price.

Gerber criticized Musk’s focus on artificial intelligence and robotics, suggesting that demand for Tesla’s humanoid robots would be low. “Nobody wants a robot from Elon Musk. Why? Who would trust him?” he said.

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Why it matterss: Gerber’s concerns about Tesla are not new. In April, Gerber predicted a difficult earnings report for Tesla, calling into question the company’s growth strategy. He suggested that Tesla’s earnings report might not meet expectations, raising doubts about the company’s ability to sell more cars with its current strategy.

Additionally, Gerber criticized Elon Musk’s leadership, blaming Tesla’s weak first-quarter sales on his “toxic” behavior. In April, Gerber said, “Basically, Tesla can’t sell its cars because of Elon’s behavior. Let’s stop blaming the Houthi rebels or German environmental terrorists. Or a recession that never happened. Or interest rates.”

Despite the criticism, some analysts believe Tesla has a bright future in the robotaxis market. On Tuesday, Ark Invest analyst Tasha Kenney highlighted Tesla’s potential to dominate the robotaxis market, despite competition Alphabet Inc.‘s Waymo And Baidu Inc. Kenney stressed that advances in Tesla’s technology could significantly reduce costs and improve scalability.

Additionally, Musk has ambitious plans for Tesla’s humanoid robots. Musk has imagined a future where humans could upload their memories to the cloud and download them into humanoid robots, adding to the list of benefits he sees for the company’s robots called Optimus.

Price action:Tesla shares closed at $209.21 on Tuesday, down 1.88% on the day. In after-hours trading, the stock was down another 0.53%. Year-to-date, Tesla shares are down 15.78%, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote