The cash is stored to “maximize returns” until needed, as you can imagine you don’t build factories over night. I don’t see the problem. When you don’t like the idea of BTC (or Gold) as alternative asset to cash in general then you should sell your shares since they plan to buy even more. Btw, the cash is up 150M today.
Microstrategy 1.1B in BTC are now worth 3B. https://bitcointreasuries.org/ and the share up 200% or so… so bad?
It’s only fitting that Tesla, who’s stock has skyrocketed to the moon would put some of its assets in an asset that has inflated just as much. Wanna bet which one starts falling first?
One thing is for sure, the future won’t be boring. 
To be fair, Bitcoin is only an example. Their 10K disclosure states: “…we may invest a portion of such cash in certain alternative reserve assets including digital assets, gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets”.
Put differently: Since they know their car business is massively overvalued, they’re now pumping billions into assets that basically have no fundamental value at all.
Keeps that wheel spinning a bit longer.
Yes, but that’s the one they actually invested in, now I’m waiting for the dogecoin one. In any case they benefited quite a bit from the hype so it’s a good move even if they were to sell it next week (that might be too risky to avoid SEC action though).
Seen on twitter:
Will they keep their ESG rating now though? Does the carbon footprint of BTC cancel out the environmental benefits of the cars? 
Developing a new payment network to acquire new clients by accepting BTC + diversifying assets for better treasury reserve seem a good strategy, and definitely deliver value to their shareholders.
Edit: btw, you don’t need to believe me, there are enough smart and wealthy people involved to remove the doubt you may have.
The report is old (as of end 2020), now they have perhaps already “done” Dogecoin (pump and dump).
“Electric is real. The stock prices of companies in the space are not" (…) “The dot-com boom produced some real companies, but most of the overpriced dot-com companies were lousy investments. The electric boom will be the same story. Some great companies will be built, but most of the investors who chase insanely-priced companies will be crying.”
Same for Bitcoin, imo.
With TSLA you’re at least getting both rolled into one stock.
I have little doubt that developping a payment method involving cryptocurrencies would have good chances of paying off and fit in the concept of a fleet of electric cars with proprietary charging facilities. I have all the doubts in the world that bitcoin is the coin for that.
I’m looking forward to see who the winners of these strange times will be. There sure is a lot of entertainment value in those developments.
Then, we’ll perhaps see the TeslaCoin ?
Sure! See how we’re all processing transactions in Libra right now. 
Oh, wait: the TeslaCoin (TES) exists already!
Doesn’t seem to be very liquid currently - even less than the PonziCoin (PONZI) for instance.
“turned”? 
Don’t worry. If Tesla fails, Apple will be picking up the slack.
Design cars designed in California.
Outsource manufacturing to some legacy Korean or Japanese manufacturer. Maybe one with great manufacturing prowess but that can’t quite compete on their own designs. Who will receive lots of money - but earn very little of Apple’s margins.
Sell to well-off fanboys queuing up to pre-order ("can’t make as many as we’d sell, supply chain has been constrained) as an affordable luxury car.
Slowly move down pricing to target the mass market.
Aren’t they partnering with Hyundai already? 
Or at least speculations about it are around.
(But I would argue against that one point of non-compete on designs - they are quite attractive nowadays)
Just remember that it is not Elon “calling the shots”, there is a board of directors (including Larry Ellison, could Oracle be next???) and an audit committee. I really doubt they based their decision on speculation, I would rather think that the current USD inflation was the driver.
They recently issued some shares so it would be weird for them to start paying dividends now. I think they raised capital even if it looks like right in this moment they have enough of it. Why? Maybe cause they knew that with the S&P 500 inclusion it would almost be free money with no adverse effects to the stock price.
Regarding why they don’t just invest the money, that’s a good question. My bet is that it takes a lot of vetting to find the right spot for a gigafactory. Tesla learns to evolve while it develops, so it would be counter-productive to burn all that cash and build all the factories with their current knowledge. Probably ramping up each factory is a lot of effort. They are a manufacturing company, not a software company like Facebook (at least the part where they could spend the most money is brick&mortar), so there is a limit to their scaling rate.
That being said I’m puzzled as to why they would diversify their cash position into Bitcoin, a highly volatile asset.
I don’t know why but I somehow think Elon Musk is a moron who just had luck.
I think it tells more about you than him, though…
Well what exactly does it tell you? 
I see the point in having a short term liquid position while waiting for new investment opportunities, but for a company which should deliver exponential growth in the next few years they’d better find a way to invest their money quickly if they want to deliver on the expectations.
And as you said, if the point is just to park your money in the short term while you plan your next investment, I don’t see how cryptos can be a good choice.
If you’re planning to build a new factory worth several billions in a few months I think you’d better make sure that the money will still be there when you need it.