December 17, 2025 – On December 16 (Eastern Time), Tesla’s stock price soared by 3.07%, closing at 489.88pershare,markinganewall−timehighsinceitslisting.Onthissingleday,itsmarketvaluesurgedby48.5 billion, pushing the total market capitalization to approximately $1.63 trillion. This made Tesla surpass Broadcom to become the seventh – largest company in the United States in terms of market value.
This new milestone sheds light on Tesla’s market narrative throughout the past year. At the end of 2024, investors were full of optimism, betting that the “close alliance” between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump would bring benefits to the company. However, the relationship between the two quickly soured, and the increasing politicization of business operations took a toll on Tesla’s sales.
By February, as critics voiced strong dissatisfaction with Musk’s connections to Trump and European far – right leaders, anti – Tesla protests started to intensify both in the United States and abroad. Coupled with the slowdown in sales growth in the Chinese market, Tesla faced the pressure of a potential decline in annual sales, and its stock price hit a low of $221.86 per share in early April.
Nevertheless, Tesla’s stock price staged a strong rebound as it advanced its plans related to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Moreover, investors approved an ambitious compensation package that extended Musk’s binding period with the company to at least a decade. Additionally, the planned listing process of Musk’s SpaceX also contributed to the stock price increase.
The trigger for this recent stock price rise was Musk’s confirmation that Tesla had started testing in Austin, Texas, with plans to deploy fully autonomous vehicles in the local ride – hailing service. Currently, vehicles equipped with Tesla’s advanced driver – assistance system are monitored by employees throughout their operation.
“From a technical perspective, unsupervised autonomous driving has been largely conquered,” Musk said at a recent event held by his AI startup xAI, indicating that Tesla might consider investing in the company. “Then, we’ll see driverless Tesla robotaxis in Austin.”
Musk has previously stated that the driverless robotaxis are expected to be put into operation by the end of December. Tesla also plans to expand its fleet size and extend its business to multiple new cities in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas by the end of this month. However, the time to achieve these goals is running short, and Tesla has not yet obtained the necessary operating permits in at least one of these states.
Tesla supporters remain enthusiastic. Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities and a staunch bull on Tesla, said on Monday local time that Tesla’s AI and robotics plans are expected to drive the company’s valuation to reach $3 trillion by the end of 2026.
