Tesla’s Trillion-Dollar Vision: AI, Robots, and the Future of Tech Companies

Tesla is continually expanding its scope beyond just being an automotive company. The company’s recent focus has been on AI, but that’s just a fraction of its ultimate ambition, which includes deploying a billion humanoid robots globally each year. However, a healthy dose of skepticism—or perhaps a whole truckload—is needed when considering CEO Elon Musk’s latest financial forecasts about this initiative.

At the recent Tesla Annual Shareholder Meeting, Musk stated that the company’s latest product under development, a humanoid robot once depicted by a person dancing in a suit, will eventually make the company worth $25 trillion. To put that into perspective, as highlighted by CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Ari Levy, that’s more than half of the value of the S&P 500, which tracks the performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. and is currently valued at around $45.5 trillion. As of Thursday’s market close, Tesla’s market cap was around $575 billion, making it the 10th most valuable company on the index.

In essence, robots and AI are expected to elevate Tesla’s value to unprecedented heights. Musk made this prediction shortly after his $56 billion compensation package was reapproved by shareholders following a rejection from a Delaware judge. According to Musk, Optimus will be one of many humanoid robots eventually available in the market. He even compared them to Star Wars’ C-3PO and R2-D2, suggesting they might eventually be capable of tasks like cooking, cleaning, and even teaching children.

It’s unclear how long Musk believes it will take for Tesla to reach a $25 trillion valuation. During the call, the CEO agreed with recent price targets published by Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest. Wood’s targets would set a price of around $2,600 per share by 2029—making its market cap around $8 trillion—and was a prediction based on the success of Tesla’s yet-to-launch robotaxi business.

The stock closed at $183.57 on Thursday. Diversifying Tesla into multiple different business units appears to be the key to its perceived value. From energy storage to solar—and soon robotaxis, robots, and rolling data centers—investors see Tesla as more of a tech company that builds cars. In a recent note by a J.P. Morgan analyst, investors expressed concern that Tesla could be valued like “just another automaker” if CEO Elon Musk’s pay package were to fail and he were to leave the company.

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Source: InsideEVs