On July 2, reports emerged that amid a broader slowdown in the global plug-in vehicle market, Tesla (TSLA.O) defied industry trends by achieving a remarkable surge in sales, significantly outpacing Wall Street’s earlier estimates. In the second quarter, Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles worldwide, surpassing the average Bloomberg-compiled forecast of 396,466 units and marking a substantial 25% year-over-year increase. During the same period last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk faced widespread skepticism from consumers due to controversies surrounding his actions during the Trump administration. Despite this sales upturn, many of Musk’s followers have redirected their attention from Tesla’s core electric vehicle operations to his ambitious vision of transforming artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and robotics into major future revenue streams. Meanwhile, there is mounting speculation that Musk might pursue a merger between Tesla and SpaceX, following SpaceX’s record-breaking initial public offering just last month.