In light of the news, Tesla's stock fell by nearly three percent in early trading on Thursday. Tesla said in a statement on Thursday that it would invest in the Nevada factory "as needed". "We will of course continue to make new investments in Gigafactory 1, as needed. However, we think there is far more output to be gained from improving existing production equipment than was previously estimated," a Tesla spokesperson said to Electrek.

While Nikkei gave no details of its sources, neither Tesla nor Panasonic denied the reports on Thursday. Panasonic's partnership with Tesla hasn't exactly been lucrative for the Japanese electronics manufacturer; it lost more than $180 million dollars on battery production by the end of its financial year. Panasonic announced in January that it was partnering with Toyota to make electric car batteries, suggesting that the company isn't putting all of its eggs just in Tesla's basket.