Lucid Drops a Hook Into the Meme Stock Waters… and Timothée Chalamet Is the Bait

The meme stock monster has officially woken up… cracked its knuckles, wiped the drool off its chin, and stumbled out of the bed it crashed into back in 2022. Now it’s hungry again, and it’s not being picky. It’s ready to feast on any debt-ridden, dying business it can sink its teeth into… with its loyal cult of WallStreetBets traders gamblers cheering it on.

We’ve already seen Opendoor double. Krispy Kreme randomly popped like it was launching a GLP-1 donut. Kohl’s caught a short squeeze (that probably ended some hedge fund interns’ careers). And then there’s American Eagle, which saw its stock jump nearly 20% after strapping Sydney Sweeney into some low-rise jeans and letting the internet do its thing. You can have your DCF models and P/E ratios, Warren… I’ll take a B-list celeb and a 30-second TikTok thirst trap. That’s the new price-to-earnings ratio.

And would you look at that… now Lucid Motors (yep, the one bankrolled by the LIV Golf Saudis) is running the same exact play… praying a pretty face can rescue their debt riddled business.

Today, Lucid (Tesla’s quieter, artsier cousin who still hasn’t figured out how to make money) announced it signed Timothée Chalamet as its first-ever global brand ambassador. The multi-year deal kicks off with a dramatic new campaign for the upcoming Gravity SUV.

And when I say dramatic, I mean Dune-level dramatic. The teaser features Chalamet standing in the middle of the desert, leaning against a green Lucid Gravity. Lucid says the partnership is about “challenging the status quo”... which is a polite way of saying, “please reddit, take the bait.”

Let’s cut the BS… this isn’t a campaign to sell EVs. It’s a campaign to sell the idea of Lucid. Call it “vibes over volume.” Because while the Lucid Air can go over 500 miles on a charge, the company’s cash reserves might not make it to the end of the road trip.

In 2024 alone, Lucid racked up a net loss of $2.9 billion as costs ballooned and deliveries underwhelmed. That brings their total losses since going public to over $10 billion, which is impressive in the same way Joe Biden’s last debate was impressive. The stock’s still down over 90% from its highs, and off another 25% in the past year as investors continue to ask the hard-hitting question: What exactly is the plan here? Well, they’ve got one… sort of. 

(Source: Lucid Group)

Beyond the Timothée Chalamet marketing spectacle, Lucid’s also trying to sell Wall Street on a different kind of fantasy… its new robotaxi partnership with Uber. The pitch goes like this: instead of struggling to sell overpriced sedans to actual people, why not license Lucid’s EV tech for autonomous ride-hailing fleets? In theory, it's a clever strategy change. “Let’s just stretch the platform, tap into the future of transportation, and build some recurring revenue in the process.” (Everyone nods their heads in agreement).

The only problem is that this thing barely exists. There’s no production timeline. No volume commitments. Not even a glimpse into how (or when) this deal translates into dollars. It’s a headline and a handshake, wrapped in buzzwords like “future mobility” and “synergy.” That’s it. No one knows what this partnership looks like operationally, or if it even moves Lucid an inch closer to profitability.

Which is probably why signing Chalamet makes sense. When you’ve already lost nearly $3 billion in 2024 alone and your stock’s down 25% in the last year, the bar isn’t very high. Getting the internet’s most beloved cheekbone model to lean against your SUV in the desert is, oddly enough, one of Lucid’s more coherent decisions. And let’s be real… they’re not expecting to sell thousands of vehicles off this ad. This is purely a shot in the dark to see if they can pump their stock price up. If that sounds desperate, it’s because it is.

Does any of this solve their core problem? No. But in this market, looking good while losing money is practically a business model. And Lucid, for better or worse, is fully committed to the bit.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Tesla as mentioned in the article.