Investing.com -- Tesla shares fell following CEO Elon Musk’s surprise announcement that he intends to launch a new political party, prompting Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas to caution that investors should be prepared for more distractions.

In a note on Tuesday, Jonas wrote, “We believe investors should be prepared for further devotion of resources (financial, time/attention) in the direction of Mr. Musk’s political priorities which may add further near-term pressure to TSLA shares.”

He described Musk’s recent political activity as “part of a planned strategy to achieve a specific goal” and noted it was designed to “bring maximum public attention to a range of issues.”

Despite the political headlines, Tesla’s second-quarter vehicle deliveries came in roughly in line with Morgan Stanley estimates at 384,000, beating what Jonas called “a low buy side bar” of 350,000 to 360,000.

However, deliveries were still down 14% year-over-year, and Morgan Stanley forecasts volumes will decline by 13% in the second half of 2025.

As Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shifts focus toward robotics and AI, Jonas highlighted the potential market value of humanoid robots.

“Tesla has 125,665 employees worldwide (year-end 2024). On our calculations, a 10% substitution to humanoid at approximately ($200k NPV/humanoid) could be worth approximately $2.5bn,” he wrote, adding that similar opportunities exist for legacy automakers like GM.

The note also flagged that Tesla’s energy storage deployments were flat year over year at 9.6 GWh, missing Morgan Stanley’s estimate of 14 GWh.

With earnings due July 23, Jonas expects Tesla to highlight its robotaxi roadmap and possibly hold an AI Day in the fall to recruit applied AI and robotics talent.