- Analyst talks up massive growth potential of AI stuff
- Estimates Optimus will dominate future revenues
- Reckons stock could double to $550
Fresh after the latest Trump policy roulette, analysts at Wedbush Securities have slapped Tesla (TSLA:NASDAQ) on its ‘Best Ideas’ list, with a bold call that the share price could double over the next 12 to 18 months to $550.
It’s been an ugly start to 2025 for the Elon Musk-led firm, with the stock down 30% so far this year following President Trump’s tariffs policy musical chairs that saw the shares decline nearly 6% (6 March).
TUNE OUT THE GROWLING BEARS
But forget all that, says Wedbush, which believes Tesla is on the cusp of significant technological advancements. First, the analysts anticipate the launch of a sub-$35,000 electric vehicle by mid-year, saying it could reignite demand and push Tesla toward a two million annual delivery run rate.
Second, Wedbush also highlighted the upcoming rollout of unsupervised FSD, or full self-driving technology, in June, a holy grail for tech geeks, car execs and ride-sharing operators. Wedbush reckons this alone could be worth $1 trillion to Tesla, on a sum-of-the-parts analysis.
Analysts expect Tesla to dominate the autonomous vehicle sector, predicting other automakers will adopt its FSD technology in the coming years, although Google’s Waymo and many others may have something to say about that.
FUTURE TESLA = 90% OPTIMUS
Beyond the car stuff, Wedbush is also excited about other AI initiatives, something Shares wrote about in the latest issue (see link above). None more so than Optimus, the company’s human-like robots. How excited? Well, according to Wedbush calculations, Optimus could eventually contribute 90% of the company’s valuation, potentially pushing its market cap beyond $2 trillion.
Tesla’s market cap is currently $825 billion.
Back to electric vehicles, and despite market concerns about Musk cosying up to the US Government and other political controversies, Wedbush estimates that less than 5% of Tesla’s global sales are at risk, despite recent vehicle volume declines globally.
‘We continue to believe the best thing that ever happened to Musk and Tesla was Trump in the White House as this will create a deregulatory environment with a federal autonomous roadmap central to the Tesla golden strategic vision’, Wedbush analysts wrote.
Markets will be watching closely.
