Tesla stock jumps, poised for 2025 closing high as bull run rolls on

Tesla (TSLA) shares chugged higher for a new 2025 closing high, shaking off a tough start to the year as investors look ahead to the company’s self-driving future, and new products.

Tesla stock topped $440 in early trade, up nearly 4%, poised for a new 2025 closing high above the $428.22 reached on January 15. Tesla stock is now higher in 9 of the last 10 trading sessions.

In the past month shares are up over 30%, with recent news like CEO Elon Musk’s $1 billion share purchase last week, new compensation proposal, and Robotaxi expansion plans beyond Austin pushing shares higher.

Driving the bullish sentiment today is a new price target hike from Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter.

Potter hiked his price target to $500 from $400 following a visit to China, where the analyst claimed Chinese automakers looked to Tesla first for AI and self-driving guidance.

Potter claimed in meetings with EV-makers like Xiaomi (1810.HK), Li Auto (LI), and Leapmotor (9863.HK) that the Chinese firms have surpassed Tesla when it comes to assembly, but Tesla compares favorably if not not more with regards to building AI-enabled machines and infrastructure.

“When it comes to ‘real world’ A.I., these companies [Chinese EV-makers] look to Tesla for guidance – not the other way around. In the words of one company, ‘without Tesla going from 0 to 1, we can’t go from 1 to 100,’” Potter wrote.

Potter wrote favorably about the firm’s experience with Tesla’s latest version of FSD (full-self driving), and projects a record quarter of sales in Q3.

And while the company has pledged robotaxi expansion beyond its current test in Austin to Nevada, Florida, and even California, a new report suggests Tesla has a long way to go in the country’s largest state by population.

Per Reuters, while Musk claimed the company would get expand robotaxi service the the San Francisco bay area and was be “getting the regulatory permission to launch” soon, Tesla is actually not anywhere close to that.

“The automaker had not applied for the needed permits, a process that can take years of testing under state oversight. Instead, it planned pre-arranged trips in human-driven vehicles only for riders who received an invitation. And it would do this under a permit that is typically used for limousines and does not allow on-demand ride-hailing, according to state officials,” the Reuters report said.

Tesla’s public policy staffer mentioned in the article did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance when seeking comment, though the individual told Reuters the company does not respond to media inquiries.