FFAI: This House of Cards Is Falling Apart as YT Jia’s Latest Pump Is Built on Fake Orders and a Tsunami of Lies

We are short FFAI because we think the company is, and always has been, a house of cards, built on a foundation of lies from the founder and Co-CEO Jia Yueting (“YT”). After returning as CEO in April 2025, YT inflated the stock price by announcing a new EV minivan with 10,000+ preorders. However, our research shows that this is nearly all fake news: the “new” car is a Chinese vehicle with FFAI’s logo swapped in, all preorders are non-binding (and 1,000 came from a penny-stock with less than $10,000 in the cash owned by YT’s classmate), and YT’s “return” as Co-CEO is theater since we think he has been not-so-secretly running FFAI the entire time.

FFAI’s stock jumped on July 22nd after Nature’s Miracle announced a preorder of 1,000 EV minivans as part of a deal worth up to $100 million despite Nature’s Miracle having a ~$2 million market cap and just $9,511 in cash. Unsurprisingly, this agreement is non-binding and contingent on financing. The only logical explanation: Nature’s Miracle’s founder and CEO Tie (James) Li was YT’s business school classmate. Most of FFAI’s remaining B2B preorders come from influencer promotion networks and a real estate brokerage.
FFAI buried its Wells Notice (SEC warning of enforcement action) under an announcement of $82 million in new financing coming, in large part, from “certain new fundamental institutional investors.” However, FFAI is yet to reveal this mystery financier. We believe this may be a reiteration of prior financing rounds where YT and other insiders appear to have used fronts to disguise that they were the ultimate source of funding.

FFAI’s new EV minivan, the FX Super One, is a “rebadged” Wey Gaoshan vehicle from Great Wall Motors, according to media reports and former employees. Reporting outlets noted the vehicles are nearly identical, down to small decorative elements. Chinese media reported that FFAI failed to order enough vehicles to get any proposed modifications, undermining any notion that there is some enormous demand.

The ultimate goal appears to be pumping the stock ahead of massive dilution. We think all the theater with the logo-swapped minivan, inflated preorders, and the mystery financing is to boost share prices before FFAI votes on September 19th to 1) increase the authorized common share count 39%, and 2) issue shares to certain convertible note and warrant holders. YT has even tried launching a $1 billion crypto treasury fund to generate additional interest in the stock.