Investor's Corner
The Tesla Killer’s death and Elon Musk’s long-term play on batteries, vertical integration
At a press conference last year at Volkswagen’s global headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, VW Chairman of the Board Herbert Diess stated that “anything that Tesla can do, we can surpass.” The VW boss even noted that its dedicated MEB electric car architecture would give the company cost advantages at a scale that’s out of Tesla’s reach.
This year, the Tesla Model 3 is steadily making its presence known in the United States auto market. In September alone, the Model 3 was listed as the 4th best-selling passenger car in the US, beating the ubiquitous Toyota Corolla Family. Tesla also finished Q3 on a strong note, manufacturing a total of 80,142 electric cars including 53,239 Model 3, as well as delivering a total of 83,500 vehicles, comprised of 55,840 Model 3, 14,470 Model S, and 13,190 Model X. This Q4, Tesla seems poised to deliver and produce an even more impressive number of vehicles.
For years, Tesla skeptics have pointed at upcoming competition from legacy automakers as a reason for the impending fall of the electric car maker. Just like Herbert Diess, many of Tesla’s critics pointed out that legacy auto’s years of experience, as well as their network of factories, should allow them to leapfrog Tesla in the electric car market as soon as they decide to enter the electric car market.
As companies like Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, and Porsche are learning today, though, it is not so simple to build a compelling electric car that’s capable of challenging Tesla’s premium vehicles in their respective segments. Mercedes-Benz, for one, has announced that the EQC — its plush competitor for the Model X — will adopt a gradual rollout due to possible warranty concerns over the vehicle’s battery and other electric car components. German news agency Bild am Sonntag recently noted that the Audi e-tron would be released later than expected as well, due to a software issue and ongoing discussions with its battery provider, LG Chem, which is allegedly adjusting the price of the vehicle’s batteries.
Even legacy carmakers that seem to be fully embracing the transition to electrified transport seem to be learning a lesson in designing and producing electric cars. Jaguar, for one, recently confirmed that the I-PACE has a range of 234 miles per charge, lower than the company’s initial estimates for the vehicle. Porsche, on the other hand, is preparing to build the Taycan, but even workers at its plant in Stuttgart, Germany have to pitch in to make the car a reality. Porsche head of production Albrecht Reimold, for one, noted that employees at the Taycan’s upcoming factory would not have regular salary increases for the next few years as the Taycan’s factory gets constructed.
With legacy automakers revealing their highly-anticipated Tesla competitors, and with each company running into challenges of their own, analysts are starting to retire myth of the “Tesla Killer.” Last month, Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein, a known skeptic of the electric car maker, stated that the Model 3 faces “no credible competition” from legacy auto until at least 2020. More recently, Berenberg analyst Alexander Haissl reiterated a Buy rating on TSLA stock with a $500 price target, stating that fears over competition from legacy automakers are overblown. Haissl further noted that Tesla’s driving ranges and vehicle efficiencies are well ahead of the competition.
Perhaps the most notable death knell on the Tesla Killer myth came from known TSLA short-seller-turned-long Andrew Left of Citron Research; who pointed out that “there is NO Tesla killer. Competition is nowhere to be found, and no electric vehicle is slated to launch at the Model 3 price point until 2021.”
Ultimately, Tesla’s prominent lead in the electric car market is the culmination of Elon Musk’s long-term play on electric car batteries and the company’s vertical integration. Since Tesla is producing its own battery cells from Panasonic’s lines in Gigafactory 1, the company is saving itself from any of the issues currently being faced by Audi as it struggles to reach a deal with LG Chem for the e-tron’s batteries, or Mercedes-Benz as it deals with uncertainties over the EQC’s battery warranty. The deep integration of Tesla’s hardware and software also creates a unified user experience that is not unlike Apple, allowing the company’s electric cars to perform at their best and preventing issues such as those being faced by Jaguar with regards to the I-PACE’s apparent inefficiency.
The death of the Tesla Killer and the improvements in Tesla’s Model 3 ramp, together with the announcement that the Q3 2018 earnings call would happen on Wednesday, appear to have improved investor sentiment for the company’s stock. On Tuesday, Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose $33.19, ending the day at $294.14, up 12.72% from Monday’s close.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm on self-driving prowess
“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet,” BoA wrote.
Tesla received a tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm Bank of America on Wednesday, as it reinitiated coverage on Tesla shares with a bullish stance that comes with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $460 price target.
In a new note that marks a sharp reversal from its neutral position earlier in 2025, the bank declared Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology the “leading consumer autonomy solution.”
Analysts highlighted Tesla’s camera-only architecture, known as Tesla Vision, as a strategic masterstroke. While technically more challenging than the multi-sensor setups favored by rivals, the vision-based approach is dramatically cheaper to produce and maintain.
This cost edge, combined with Tesla’s rapidly expanding real-world data engine, positions the company to scale robotaxis far more profitably than competitors, BofA argues in the new note:
“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet.”
The bank now attributes roughly 52% of Tesla’s total valuation to its Robotaxi ambitions. It also flagged meaningful upside from the Optimus humanoid robot program and the fast-growing energy storage business, suggesting the auto segment’s recent headwinds, including expired incentives, are being eclipsed by these higher-margin opportunities.
Tesla’s own data underscores exactly why Wall Street is waking up to FSD’s potential. According to Tesla’s official safety reporting page, the FSD Supervised fleet has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles driven.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
That total ballooned from just 6 million miles in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and a staggering 4.25 billion in 2025 alone. In the first 50 days of 2026, owners added another 1 billion miles — averaging more than 20 million miles per day.
This avalanche of real-world, camera-captured footage, much of it on complex city streets, gives Tesla an unmatched training dataset. Every mile feeds its neural networks, accelerating improvement cycles that lidar-dependent rivals simply cannot match at scale.
Tesla owners themselves will tell you the suite gets better with every release, bringing new features and improvements to its self-driving project.
The $460 target implies roughly 15 percent upside from recent trading levels around $400. While regulatory and safety hurdles remain, BofA’s endorsement signals growing institutional conviction that Tesla’s data advantage is not hype; it’s a tangible moat already delivering billions of miles of proof.
Elon Musk
SpaceX IPO could push Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion: Polymarket
The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.
Recent projections have outlined how a potential $1.75 trillion SpaceX IPO could generate historic returns for early investors. The projections suggest the offering would not only become the largest IPO in history but could also result in unprecedented windfalls for some of the company’s key investors.
The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.
As noted in a Polymarket Money analysis, Elon Musk invested $100 million into SpaceX in 2002 and currently owns approximately 42% of the company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation following SpaceX’s potential $1.75 trillion IPO, that stake would be worth roughly $735 billion.
Such a figure would dramatically expand Musk’s net worth. When combined with his holdings in Tesla Inc. and other ventures, a public debut at that level could position him as the world’s first trillionaire, depending on market conditions at the time of listing.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists Elon Musk with a net worth of $666 billion, though a notable portion of this is tied to his TSLA stock. Tesla currently holds a market cap of $1.51 trillion, and Elon Musk’s currently holds about 13% to 15% of the company’s outstanding common stock.
Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, invested $20 million in SpaceX in 2008. Polymarket Money estimates the firm owns between 1.5% and 3% of the private space company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, that range would translate to approximately $26.25 billion to $52.5 billion in value.
That return would represent one of the most significant venture capital outcomes in modern Silicon Valley history, with a growth of 131,150% to 262,400%.
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, invested $900 million into SpaceX in 2015 and is estimated to hold between 6% and 7% of the private space firm. At the projected IPO valuation, that stake could be worth between $105 billion and $122.5 billion. That’s a growth of 11,566% to 14,455%.
Other major backers highlighted in the post include Fidelity Investments, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Bank of America, and Andreessen Horowitz, each potentially sitting on multibillion-dollar gains.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk hints Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet,” Musk said.
Elon Musk recently hinted that he believes Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily if they continue to hold onto their shares, and he reiterated that in a new interview that the company released on its social accounts this week.
Musk is one of the most successful CEOs in the modern era and has mammothed competitors on the Forbes Net Worth List over the past year as his holdings in his various companies have continued to swell.
Tesla investors, especially those who have been holding shares for several years, have also felt substantial gains in their portfolios. Over the past five years, the stock is up over 78 percent. Since February 2019, nearly seven years ago to the day, the stock is up over 1,800 percent.
Musk said in the interview:
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.”
Elon Musk in new interview: “Hold on to your $TSLA stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.” pic.twitter.com/cucirBuhq0
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 26, 2026
It’s no secret Musk has been extremely bullish on his own companies, but Tesla in particular, because it is publicly traded.
However, the company has so many amazing projects that have an opportunity to revolutionize their respective industries. There is certainly a path to major growth on Wall Street for Tesla through its various future projects, including Optimus, Cybercab, Semi, and Unsupervised FSD.
- Optimus (Tesla’s humanoid robot): Musk has discussed its potential for tasks like childcare, walking dogs, or assisting elderly parents, positioning it as a massive long-term driver of company value.
- Cybercab (Tesla’s robotaxi/autonomous ride-hailing vehicle): a fully autonomous vehicle geared specifically for Tesla’s ride-sharing ambitions.
- Semi (Tesla’s electric truck, with mentions of expansion, like in Europe): brings Tesla into the commercial logistics sector.
- Unsupervised FSD (Full Self-Driving software achieving full autonomy without human supervision): turns every Tesla owner’s vehicle into a fully-autonomous vehicle upon release
These projects specifically are some of the highest-growth pillars Tesla has ever attempted to develop, especially in Musk’s eyes, as he has said Optimus will be the best-selling product of all-time.
Many analysts agree, but the bullish ones, like Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, are perhaps the one who believes Tesla has incredible potential on Wall Street, predicting a $2,600 price target for 2030, but this is not even including Optimus.
She told Bloomberg last March that she believes that the project will present a potential additive if Tesla can scale faster than anticipated.
Tesla wins another award critics will absolutely despise
Tesla Full Self-Driving likely to expand to yet another Asian country
