Tesla Races Toward $2 Trillion Market Cap

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 17, 8:15AM EST

Tesla Races Toward $2 Trillion Market Cap — © jetcityimage / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) shares are up 86% so far this year. Most of the run has been since the presidential election. By contrast, the S&P 500 is 27% higher in 2024. The jump has taken the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s market cap to $1.5 trillion. One securities firm has a price target that would take the stock to just over $610. That means Tesla would be worth $2 trillion. Only Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia are worth more than that.

Wedbush’s target of $650 is the most aggressive among Tesla bulls. In several cases, however, this stock has moved so quickly that even firms with Overweight, Buy, and Outperform ratings have price targets below the stock’s level. With shares at $466 apiece, some experts will likely increase their targets.

Tesla bulls are looking beyond its position in the EV market. However, they do expect U.S. sales to grow as the market in the United States expands. They argue that the company will pick up market share in China, where local companies, led by BYD, currently have a sales edge.

However, the primary reason that its shares will rise so much is not its position as an EV company. It is that Tesla will take the lead in autonomous vehicles. These would require absolutely no action by the driver. Tesla is often considered at the forefront of self-driving technology across the entire industry, including gasoline-powered cars and EVs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said, “Tesla is far ahead in self-driving cars.” No technology, including the launch of EVs, would change the industry more.

There is an argument that the relationship between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Trump will also help the company. It is hard to understand the specifics of that, but it is part of the Tesla bull conversation.

Tesla Is on Track to Become a $3 Trillion Company Says One Analyst

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.