How much money Tesla short sellers made after Elon Musk’s NYT profile

Elon Musk.ASSOCIATED PRESS

• Tesla short sellers received a sizable payday, hours after The New York Times published an eye-opening interview with an emotional Elon Musk, the electric-car company’s chief executive.
• Investors betting against Tesla raked in about $1 billion on Friday.
• The Times’ interview with Musk came out late Thursday night. In it, Musk lamented the many personal and professional challenges he has faced in the past year.
• Musk’s admissions come after a tumultuous year at Tesla, but the CEO predicted that the pain isn’t quite over yet.

Tesla short sellers received a sizable payday hours after The New York Times published an eye-opening interview with an emotional Elon Musk, the electric-car company’s chairman and CEO.

This investors betting against Tesla raked in about $1 billion on Friday. Shares closed down nearly 9% on the day, and dropped close to 1% lower in after hours trading, landing at $303.05 per share.

The Times’ interview with Musk came out late Thursday night. In it, Musk lamented the many personal and professional challenges he has faced in the past year. By Musk’s own admission, he has been burning it on all sides while Tesla struggles to crank out thousands of its first mass-market car, the Model 3 sedan.

The fatigue has left the tech billionaire and serial entrepreneur drained, sleepless, and irritable, as evidenced by his recent erratic behavior — like an off-the-cuff pitch to take Tesla private — that has caused additional problems for the company.

Musk accurately predicted the pinch from Tesla’s shorts isn’t over yet. The CEO told The Times he expects “at least a few months of extreme torture from the short-sellers,” who he believes are intent on seeing Tesla fail.

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