Key Takeaways
\nTesla stock closed at a fresh record high on Tuesday, completing a monthslong rebound from severe losses earlier in the year.Investors have looked past slumping electric vehicle sales to focus on the rollout of Tesla’s robotaxi service and its broader mission to pioneer physical AI.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk says the future is autonomous. Investors appear to be on board.\n<\/p>\n
Tesla (TSLA<\/a>) stock rose 3% on Tuesday to close at $489.88, its first record high of the year<\/a>. Shares got a boost this week after Musk said Tesla had begun testing unoccupied self-driving cars in Austin, Texas, a major step toward realizing Musk\u2019s vision of operating a ride-hailing network of autonomous vehicles. Tuesday\u2019s gains put the stock up 21% for the year, capping off its rebound from a tumultuous first half.\u00a0(The shares fell today amid a broader pullback<\/a>.)\n<\/p>\n Tesla stock started the year on a high note. Elon Musk was vital in returning Donald Trump to the White House, and investors were betting his close ties with the president-elect would benefit Tesla despite Trump\u2019s opposition to clean energy policies aimed at boosting demand for electric vehicles.\n<\/p>\n Then Trump was inaugurated\u2014and everything changed.\n<\/p>\n Why This Is Important<\/p>\n Investors appear to have bought CEO Elon Musk’s pitch that Tesla is first and foremost an AI and robotics company. The outlook for its stock now likely hinges on the company’s ability to meet ambitious targets for its full self-driving software and robotaxi service.<\/p>\n Tesla shares plunged in February and March as Musk\u2019s work with the Trump administration and political advocacy abroad sparked consumer backlash<\/a>. Investors, meanwhile, worried Musk\u2019s government work was distracting him<\/a> from leading Tesla. All the while, Trump pursued tariff policies that whacked the stock market. By mid-April, the stock had lost more than half of its value since a December 2024 record high.\n<\/p>\n The stock regained momentum once Musk stepped back from his work with the White House. And despite some hiccups\u2014including a public falling-out<\/a> between Musk and Trump in June\u2014shares have been trending higher ever since.\n<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s ambition to become a leading AI and robotics company has been vital to its turnaround, helping it benefit from investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence that has lifted a range of stocks this year. Tesla in late 2024 unveiled its Robovan and Cybercab<\/a> at an event laying out Musk\u2019s vision for the company\u2019s AI-driven future. He said fully autonomous Teslas would be operating in Texas and California by the end of 2025, and showcased Tesla\u2019s humanoid robot, Optimus, which he predicted would be \u201cthe biggest product ever.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Tesla began piloting<\/a> its robotaxi service in Austin in June, and expanded to the San Francisco area the following month. Musk is aiming to enter several other major metros, including Phoenix and Las Vegas, next year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Optimism about Tesla’s autonomous technology has offset continued weakness in its EV business. Sales jumped to a record<\/a> in the most recent quarter as Americans rushed to buy EVs ahead of the expiration of federal tax credits<\/a>. Still, Tesla is expected to deliver far fewer cars this year than in 2024 after a sharp drop in the first<\/a> and second quarters<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Investors worried about Musk’s commitment to Tesla\u2014he also leads space exploration company SpaceX<\/a> and AI start-up xAI, among other things\u2014got reassurances last month when shareholders approved<\/a> a compensation plan valued at up to $1 trillion.\n<\/p>\n Wedbush analyst and noted Tesla bull Dan Ives predicted in a note on Monday that 2026 will be a \u201cgame changer\u201d for the company. Ives expects Tesla to begin volume production of Cybercabs by May and accelerate its robotaxi rollout with the help of federal regulators. \u201cWe believe the march to an AI driven valuation for\u00a0TSLA\u00a0over the next 6-9 months has now begun,\u201d wrote Ives, who thinks Tesla stock could rise more than 60% to $800 by the end of next year.\n<\/p>\n Most on Wall Street are more cautious. The mean price target of analysts tracked by Visible Alpha is below $400, suggesting a retreat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways Tesla stock closed at a fresh record high on Tuesday, completing a monthslong rebound from severe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-188943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}