Dan Ives, analyst at Yorkville Ives, has reiterated his 'outperform' rating on Tesla, the electric carmaker, with a $500 price target, calling the current period the start of a "golden age" driven by autonomous driving and robotics.
With Tesla's shares trading at $375, Ives argues that investors who value the company purely as an automaker are missing the platform being built on top of its vehicle business.
He describes Tesla as "one of the clearest ways to own physical AI in the public markets," citing its fleet of several million vehicles generating real-world driving data, proprietary silicon, and manufacturing scale as a self-reinforcing competitive advantage.
At the wheel?
Full Self-Driving (FSD), Tesla's driver-assistance software, is now attached to more than 55% of new North American deliveries and is helping build the data foundation for a broader robotaxi network.
The robotaxi service is live in six US cities, with paid miles approaching 2.5 million, while a 5,000-vehicle permit in Nevada opens the path to a materially larger fleet.
Cybercab, a purpose-built driverless vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, has begun production and is carrying paying passengers in Austin, with output currently constrained by 4680 battery-pack supply.
Primetime?
Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, is moving toward commercial deployment with dedicated production capacity under construction in California and Texas, extending the same AI software stack into labour and industrial automation.
Tesla Energy, which sells utility-scale Megapack battery storage and residential Powerwall systems, provides what Ives calls a second growth engine, expected to contribute more to group margins as volumes rise.
Ives sees Tesla's earnings power as only beginning to reflect the platform it has assembled, and believes investors need to "see around the corner" as autonomous and robotics revenues scale through 2027 and 2028.
