Musk Warns MUFG, Jane Street: “Exit Shorts Before Tesla Reaches Autonomy, Or Be Obliterated” 

Elon Musk has a long history of mocking financial institutions that bet against him, often taking direct aim at short sellers on X. He’s even described himself as the “Destroyer of Shorts.” 

Musk doesn’t target short sellers too often; since joining X, he’s mentioned “shorts” a little more than two dozen times. Recall late last year, Musk was joking that Bill Gates could go “bankrupt” on a backfiring short Tesla bet. 

Musk’s latest warning to shorts – directed at MUFG Securities, Jane Street Group, Citadel Advisors, ADAPT Investment Managers, Belvedere Trading, and others - came Thursday morning in an X post, where he said, “If they don’t exit their short position before Tesla reaches autonomy at scale, they will be obliterated.”

If they don’t exit their short position before Tesla reaches autonomy at scale, they will be obliterated

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2025

What prompted Musk’s warning was a list of the current net short sellers of Tesla, posted on X by an investor. 

TSLA shorts

Here the list of the current net short sellers of $TSLA.
The #1 position is new, MUFG Securities EMEA, a London based wholly-owned investment banking subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co., Ltd., which is part of the Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial… pic.twitter.com/6BwZvSD2eS

— Aleð•andra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) August 14, 2025

According to the latest Bloomberg data, the short position on Tesla is around 2.65% of the float short, or about 72 million shares, with about .7 days to cover. 

Ever since Tesla shares rocketed higher in the early 2020s, shorts have largely stayed sidelined for fear of a squeeze by Musk. 

As for Musk’s latest autonomy timeline, he recently noted that “autonomy will start positively contributing to Tesla around the second half of 2026.”

Already, Tesla’s “Robotaxi” fleet is operating in Austin, Texas, with a much wider rollout across the country in the months ahead. 

Here’s EV blog Electrek’s first take on Musk’s comments:

I think Tesla shareholders hoping for a short squeeze should manage their expectations. With only 2.6% of the float and about a day to cover, any short squeeze would have a minimal impact.

However, I think Elon is probably right. If Tesla reaches autonomy at scale on his timeline, Tesla’s stock would shoot up, but there are huge caveats to this prediction.

Firstly, if you believe Elon’s latest timeline for the second half of next year, there are several significant events that are expected to occur at Tesla before then.

With the tax credit set to expire in the US and increasing competition in Europe and China, Tesla is expected to face several tough quarters after Q3. Elon himself admitted it during the last earnings call.

We are not just talking about Tesla continuing its earnings decline, which has been a clear trend for two years now, but we are talking about Tesla likely losing money, starting in Q1 2026. I don’t think shareholders and the market are ready for that.

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