Continuous Decline in Tesla Stock!

Tesla (TSLA) shares fell again on Friday as general market sell-offs continued. Since CEO Elon Musk received his $1 trillion payment package, the stock has lost about 15% of its value.

With today’s 4% decline, Tesla shares have decreased by a total of 14% on a weekly basis and have fallen below the psychologically important support level of $400. The shares are trading at their lowest levels since the beginning of September.

One of the reasons for the general market sell-off is the reduced likelihood of a rate cut in December, thereby increasing pressure on risky assets, especially large tech companies. Investors are also seeing Nvidia (NVDA) shares decline by 3%.

Despite this, Tesla investors see great potential in the near future, supported by artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. The latest assessment came from Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley. In his piece titled “It’s Too Early for 2026,” Jonas stated that Tesla would be removing the safety driver from its robotaxi tests in Texas and promised expansion in at least one other U.S. state. “2026 will be the year when robotaxis become a reality for consumers and investors, rather than science fiction,” he said.

At a recent investor meeting, Musk announced that Tesla would be removing the safety drivers for robotaxis in Austin by the end of the year. He also added that Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas will be new cities where Tesla will test its robotaxi service.

Jonas predicts that Tesla and Musk's xAI projects will become increasingly intertwined and that this will assist Tesla with its Optimus robot production. “A Tesla robot factory will be the 'main' hub for the next generation of robots. The expanding compute and 'real pursuit' AI capabilities of xAI are expected to become more prominent over time,” he said.

Tesla announced during the meeting that it would establish a production line for 1 million units of Optimus at its Fremont, California plant and would eventually create a 10 million unit line at Giga Texas in Austin. Optimus is currently in pilot production at Fremont.

Jonas has a bullish outlook on Tesla and sets a short-term price target of $410; the “bull case” goes as high as $800.

Yesterday, Dan Ives from Wedbush noted that the automaker's future in artificial intelligence is a crucial point for investors to focus on. “I believe this will be the most important part of the Tesla story,” he said at an investor event in New York.

Ives stated that Musk's payment package is a “green light” for Tesla’s AI and autonomous technology plans and assigned an “outperform” rating for the stock, setting the highest price target at $600 across the street.