Investor's Corner
Tesla’s (TSLA) Battery Day is charging Jim Cramer’s valuation: “It’s Game, Set, Match”
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) fan and former critic of the company Jim Cramer is looking forward to Battery Day on September 22, and it is fueling his valuation of the automaker who he once considered to be a guaranteed “sell” in the stock market.
An interview with Tesla Daily and TheStreet’s Rob Maurer allowed Cramer to clear the air about his thoughts for the electric car maker. However, looking forward, Cramer is excited for the company’s upcoming Battery Day, because he feels that it could be a key to spiking Tesla’s valuation into the stratosphere.
“What’s key to my valuation, Rob, is what Elon Musk will say on September 22,” Cramer said. Expecting Tesla to roll out a battery cell that could run for ten or twelve hours because of solar energy, Cramer admits he is not familiar with what Musk will unveil during the event. Any way Tesla puts it, Cramer believes it is “Game, Set, Match” for the automotive industry.
Maurer explained the more popular beliefs of Battery Day to Cramer, stating that Tesla will outline its battery strategy for the world to feast on. Additionally, Tesla could explain how it intends to increase annual battery production across all of its products, and not just its cars.
Maurer, like any Tesla enthusiast, knows that a lot of hype surrounds Battery Day. Nobody truly knows what will occur in late September or what the expectations are, but one thing is for sure, Wall Street will have its eyes set in Fremont, where the event is taking place.
“I think one thing that investors need to try to understand is really what those expectations are from the broad Wall Street community. Whether they’re expecting some huge technological breakthrough, or whether they’re going to be satisfied with, ‘Okay, here’s our plan to rapidly, capitally efficiently ramp up to a couple of Terawatt hours of battery production.’ I think there is going to be a lot of technological focus, but I think a lot of it is going to be on that capital efficiency and production ramping angle,” Maurer stated.
Ultimately, Tesla wants to increase the longevity of its battery packs, so its vehicles are capable of lasting fifteen or twenty years without having to undergo cell replacements. With that, the company also wants to improve the energy density that its cells can handle, which will lead to increased range within its vehicles.
Cramer, while a Tesla fan, is still an investor, and he believes that his valuation of the company ultimately comes down to what happens on September 22. If Tesla unveils a significant development in terms of its battery goals, the stock will go up. However, he’s advising some investors to proceed with caution, just in case.
“It [Battery Day] may be one of those events where, if you don’t own it, you may want to wait until after, if he doesn’t deliver along the line that people want him to deliver,” Cramer said. “I mean, one of the things I like about Elon Musk is that he’s not thinking about what you want, like Steve Jobs. He’s thinking about what you will want well ahead of when you know it. So he may be over the heads of people on September 22, and that means some people may be disappointed because they didn’t get what they want, not realizing they’re getting twice what they want if they would just shut up and listen.”
This fact leads Cramer to believe that the stock will go higher after Battery Day. Like many people, Battery Day is among Tesla’s most anticipated events in the company’s history because it is more significant than cars and energy storage; it is the future of our planet.
The full interview between Rob Maurer and Jim Cramer is available below.
Investor's Corner
Tesla just did something in South Korea that no foreign carmaker has ever done
Tesla’s Model Y just became South Korea’s best-selling car, beating every domestic model in May.
Tesla did something last month that no foreign car has ever done in South Korea by outselling every vehicle in the country, domestic or imported, finishing the month with Model Y as the single best-selling car across the entire Korean market. According to data from the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association released on June 4, the Model Y recorded 8,762 units sold in May, pushing the Kia Sorento into second place at 7,836 units and the Hyundai Grandeur into third at 5,183 units. It is the first time an imported vehicle has outsold every domestic model on a single-month basis.
Tesla imported 10,866 cars into South Korea in May, making it the top import brand for the fourth consecutive month. BMW followed at 6,555 units, less than two-thirds of Tesla’s total, while BYD registered just 1,032 units. The combined domestic sales of GM Korea, Renault Korea, and KG Mobility last month totaled just 7,019 units, meaning a single Tesla model outsold three Korean automakers combined.
Tesla FSD earns high praise in South Korea’s real-world autonomous driving test
South Korea has historically been one of the hardest markets for foreign automakers to crack. Hyundai and Kia together control close to 70% of the overall market and carry deep consumer loyalty built over decades. Tesla’s path into this market was an uphill battle due to high import duties, limited service infrastructure, and early skepticism about charging networks. In 2024, the Model Y was the best-selling imported car in South Korea with 18,717 units for the full year. By 2025, after the Juniper refresh, it cleared 50,000 units and took the top spot among all EVs.
Year to date, Tesla has a 250.8% increase in the country over the same period last year, and now holds a 30.8% share of the entire imported car segment for 2026. EVs as a category represented 48.6% of all imported passenger car registrations in May. As Teslarati has reported, the Juniper refresh brought meaningful improvements to range, interior quality, and ride refinement that addressed the most common criticisms of earlier Model Y versions. Those upgrades appear to be resonating in markets like South Korea where buyers compare Tesla directly against high end domestic competitors.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO set to provide massive $11.6B windfall for teacher pension plan
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) stands to reap one of the most extraordinary returns in pension fund history thanks to a bold 2019 investment in SpaceX.
According to a recent report from The Globe and Mail, the Toronto-based fund invested roughly $300 million CAD (~$220 million USD at the time) in Elon Musk’s space company as its inaugural deal through the Teachers’ Innovation Platform.
At SpaceX’s anticipated $1.75 trillion IPO valuation, set for a mid-June debut on Nasdaq under ticker $SPCX, that stake could now be worth up to $11.6 billion USD. This would represent a roughly 50x return and easily become OTPP’s most successful single investment ever.
The fund manages $279 billion in assets for approximately 346,000 working and retired teachers in Ontario, potentially delivering an average boost of around $33,500 per member if fully realized.
SpaceX has filed its S-1 and plans to price shares at $135 each, aiming to raise a record $75 billion in what would be the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco. The company reported $18.67 billion in revenue for 2025, driven primarily by Starlink satellite internet growth and NASA contracts, though it continues to post significant losses tied to ambitious R&D in Starship and AI initiatives.
Important pieces moving forward include:
- Starlink Expansion: The satellite broadband service is scaling rapidly, targeting global connectivity, especially in underserved rural and remote areas. This segment offers massive recurring revenue potential as numbers climb.
- Starship and Reusability Leadership: SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship aims to slash launch costs dramatically, enabling frequent missions, Mars ambitions, and lucrative government/defense contracts. Success here could unlock exponential growth.
- AI and Diversification: Recent moves, including ties to xAI, position SpaceX in high-growth AI infrastructure, broadening beyond traditional aerospace.
- Validation Scrutiny: While the $1.75 trillion target excites investors, analysts like Morningstar value the company closer to $780 billion, citing high multiples (around 90x trailing revenue) and execution risks. A 180-day lockup period will prevent early investors like OTPP from selling immediately post-IPO.
The irony has not been lost on observers. Ontario’s government previously canceled a Starlink rural internet contract amid political tensions involving Musk, yet the pension fund’s savvy investment, made when SpaceX was valued around $33-36 billion, and Starlink was nascent, delivers outsized gains independent of politics.
For OTPP, this windfall strengthens its already solid 111 percent funding ratio and underscores the value of patient, innovation-focused capital allocation.
For SpaceX, the IPO marks a new chapter: greater transparency, access to public markets for talent retention and growth capital, and heightened pressure to deliver on its multi-planetary vision.
All eyes are fixed on whether SpaceX can justify its lofty valuation through sustained execution. For Ontario teachers, the returns are already stellar, but SpaceX, like other Musk companies in the past, has plenty of things to prove. Perhaps the most ideal person for the job is at the helm, hoping to bring the company to a massive valuation.
Investor's Corner
Tesla has its answer to auto growth, it just has to bring it to the U.S.: analyst
Tesla has its answer to grow its automotive sales over the next few years, TD Cowen analyst Itay Michaeli says, but it just has to bring it to the U.S.
On Thursday, Michaeli reiterated his $490 price target and the ‘Buy’ rating he already held on Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA). However, its automotive division has struggled to show sequential growth over the past few years, mostly due to its focus on AI and Full Self-Driving. Tesla already axed two of its lower-volume vehicles with the Model S and Model X earlier this year.
However, Tesla does not need to engineer an entire new vehicle to trigger an upward tick in sales; it just has to bring it from China to the U.S., Michaeli said.
He is talking about the Model Y L, a slightly larger version of the all-electric crossover that is already available in China. U.S. customers have been pleading with CEO Elon Musk to bring it to the country since its launch in Asia last year, but he’s not convinced of it because of the advent of self-driving and its importance in this particular market.
The problem is that Tesla owners have been requesting something larger that could fit a typical American family. The Model Y L is slightly larger than the standard Model Y, but some are concerned that it could still be too small to fit what most people might need.
Instead, they have asked for a full-size SUV from Tesla.
Tesla gives big hint that it will build Cyber SUV, smaller Cybertruck
Nevertheless, the Model Y L still presents a great opportunity for Tesla in the U.S., and Michaeli says that there is an additional sales opportunity of about 100,000 units, with demand potential falling somewhere between 60,000 and 135,000 units.
TD Cowen’s note to investors also analyzed that Tesla’s growth could come from a stock perspective as well, positively impacting the stock price, as it has been widely reliant on vehicle sales, even though Tesla has truly phased itself away from that being an important metric.
Tesla stands to gain greatly from the introduction of the Model Y L in the U.S., but only if Elon Musk sees it as a viable fit for the market. Families may need to see Tesla bring something larger to the U.S., or they might be forced to buy from another automaker that offers something that fits is needs for more interior space to haul around the kids.