- Tesla’s stock price jumped 10% in Monday’s premarket as traders reacted to Elon Musk’s China trip.
- Musk seems to have won key support for rolling out Tesla’s autonomous driving technology in China.
- The news looks like a “home run” for the electric car maker, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said.
Tesla stock surged ahead of Monday’s opening bell as traders reacted to the electric car maker moving a step closer to winning Beijing’s approval for its full self-driving technology in China.
Shares were up 10% to just under $186 shortly before 7:30 a.m. ET. Tesla’s valuation will balloon by nearly $60 billion if those gains hold until the opening bell, per Business Insider’s calculations.
Tesla struck a deal to partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu for technology associated with autonomous driving, and passed a key data security and privacy requirement, Bloomberg reported.
The announcement came after CEO Elon Musk made a surprise visit to China on Sunday to meet with top officials including Premier Li Qiang. The Wall Street Journal reported that China’s government had signaled to Musk that it would support Tesla’s full self-driving rollout.
China is a key market for the US-based EV maker, although it faces intense competition from local rivals such as BYD and XPeng.
Signs of slowing demand in China have dragged on Tesla’s stock price in recent months, although shares rallied last week after Musk’s company said it planned to launch cheaper models in 2025.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the latest news a “home run” for Tesla and maintained his price target of $275, implying a 64% jump from the stock’s Friday close.
“Musk winning FSD approval in the key China market is a watershed moment for the Tesla story in our view,” Ives said in a note seen by BI.
“This is a key moment for Musk as well as Beijing at a time that Tesla has faced massive domestic EV competition in China along with softer demand,” he added. “While the long-term valuation story at Tesla hinges on FSD and autonomous, a key missing piece in that puzzle is Tesla making FSD available in China, which is now a done deal.”
