Tesla raises spending plan, discloses new subpoena on Musk’s 2018 tweet

Tesla Inc. announced in a regulatory filing on Monday that it has boosted its capital investment plan by $1 billion and revealed a second subpoena pertaining to CEO Elon Musk's go-private statements from 2018.

As it aims to ramp up production at its new facilities in Texas and Berlin, the business now anticipates spending between $6 billion and $8 billion this year and each of the following two years. This is an increase from its earlier expenditure target of $5 billion to $7 billion.

Last month, Musk claimed that the plants are "losing billions of dollars" as they struggle to increase capacity because of a battery shortage and problems with China's ports.

Meanwhile, evidence about adherence to Musk's 2018 settlement with the regulator was requested in the most recent subpoena issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 13.

Musk had agreed to allow the business's attorneys to pre-approve tweets containing relevant information about the company as part of a settlement with the SEC over his go-private tweets.

The business said that it will work with the authorities of the state. The SEC chose not to respond. In relation to the settlement, the agency had first subpoenaed Tesla in November.

The wealthiest man in the world, who himself himself as a "free speech absolutist," claimed in March that his "funding secured" tweet was accurate and compared himself to rapper Eminem in his attempt to have his 2018 settlement with the SEC thrown out.

He also challenged the judge's decision not to terminate the agreement in June.

The most recent subpoena comes as Musk gears up for a court confrontation with Twitter in October over the latter's rejection of his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media giant.

The regulator had questioned Musk in June about a post in which he expressed uncertainty about his purchase of Twitter owing to worries about the volume of phony users and spam accounts.

In a separate filing, Tesla claimed that it had converted nearly 75% of its bitcoin assets into fiat money, earning $64 million in the process but incurring a $170 million impairment charge in the first half of 2022.