Elon Musk promises to Make Tesla Great Again. Investors are buying it – for now

In many ways, these have been tough days for Tesla. Falling sales. Squeezed profit margins. Proposed changes in US government policy that could cost the company billions.

These should be tough days for Tesla. Sales are down. It’s making less money on every car it does manage to sell. Competitors are eating into its market share, especially internationally. The end of various federal EV policies could cost the company billions. And then there’s the CEO. Elon Musk made the company what it is, turning it from a humble startup into a financial juggernaut. But now there’s near-constant controversy swirling around him as he upends the US government, inserts himself into international politics, plays video games and posts on his social media site, X, drawing his attention away from Tesla in what he himself describes as a “pivotal year” for the company. But you wouldn’t know that by the value of Tesla shares (TSLA), which still dwarfs any other automaker’s market value. Musk took up most of a recent investor call promising imminent, major advances on self-driving cars, robotaxis and humanoid robots and promising that next year would be “epic,” rather than addressing the company’s fundamentals. Investors sent the stock up 4% in the following days anyway, even though Musk himself has admitted that he has a track record of not delivering on promises. “There is a path where Tesla is worth more than the next top five companies combined,” he predicted. “It’s, like, a difficult path, but it is an achievable path.” Some analysts questioned the gains in Tesla shares.