00:03 Speaker A
It was a catalyst moment when Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke with BlackRock founder Larry Fink in Davos on Thursday. That’s something I learned from uh Big Elon, other than that I probably won’t live to be 150 years old. Europe could get regulated approval for fully autonomous driving within the next month, with China not far behind. A potential win could support Tesla’s recurring revenue, which is very important. Next, Tesla started a robotaxi service without safety monitors in Austin, Texas. It also looks to lay the groundwork for large-scale deployment of robotaxis in the next 12 to 18 months. It must be noted that Tesla may start selling its Optimus humanoid robot to the public by the end of next year. So, Elon makes some bullish points here, but will Wall Street forget all of this when Tesla announces it will be a weak quarter on January 28th? Let’s bring this to the bid opening roundtable. Uh, first of all, it’s up to you. What do you have?
01:00 Anez
Uh, yeah, listen, I mean, the people on the street right now might be saying, uh, forget about this quarter, just tell us how real the future, uh, uh, robot taxis, Optimus Prime robot predictions are. Uh, you saw Tesla stock up 4% yesterday, uh Musk said they’re basically using uh robotaxis in Austin right now, without safety monitors and without the prospect of being able to get approval in the EU and China. Uh, that’s huge and that’s what the streets may be looking at in the future.
01:51 Speaker A
Yes, Brooke, this quarter is likely to be weak. I also think investors may have forgotten what we’ve heard from Ford and General Motors over the past month. Both companies announced very large EV writedowns, and that was the context, I mean, demand was so weak that they had to take these writedowns, and Elon’s situation didn’t get any better.
02:22 Speaker A
Go ahead, Brooke.
02:23 Brooke
I think we’re definitely seeing that momentum, especially after the EV tax credit ended in September. What we’re seeing is a push by these companies, uh, or rather consumers, to get ahead of expiration. Now, as we move into the second half of the year, not only with Tesla’s lead, but also with Google’s Waymo, the competition that they have in terms of these robotaxis, it’s definitely going to pick up a little bit, especially as it’s gaining momentum across the United States. So I think not only does there continue to be interest in electric vehicles, but the momentum that we had last year, especially because of the tax credits, is going to continue moving forward. I think more investors are paying attention to the future of Tesla, especially these robotaxis and humanoid robots, which I know we’ll talk about soon.
03:17 Speaker A
Stephanie, the other side of the coin is that Tesla can basically report whatever information it wants next week. The retail community will still love this company, and they certainly will still love Elon.
03:32 stephanie
Yeah, I always say, whenever you try to analyze a stock like Tesla, you look at normal things like valuation or, you know, pegged ratios, um, earnings estimates, that’s really not an issue for me. It’s like, do you believe it or not? Are you in or out of Elon’s grand vision? You know, I do think robotaxis are interesting and I think how quickly he’s become a player or Tesla has become a player because, you know, it seems to me that other companies like Waymo have been at this for much longer. Um, but I do, you know, that’s exactly what you see. It’s the most traded stock on Robinhood, uh, you know, other than Nvidia, um, I think people can’t look at the fundamentals, can’t look at the technical analysis, maybe short-term, but is it really like do you believe in the long-term vision?
04:47 Speaker A
You know, you’re going to stay at Tesla, Stephanie. I think Larry Think mentioned this yesterday when he was talking to Elon. I mean Tesla, if you scale out the day-to-day uh volatility, it’s a good long-term investment.
05:08 stephanie
Indeed. I mean, it’s been on the rise, you know, especially in the last few months, and like I said, I think you have to decide whether you’re in or out. Well, even if you were paying attention to their latest results on the 28th, you already expected them to not have negative earnings, right? But 2026 is expected to be a very strong year, with year-over-year growth of 30% on a very low basis. So, I think a lot of that is already in inventory, it’s kind of like, you know, the figure uh stuff actually goes on sale in 2027. Well, how real is the growth of robotaxis? How quickly can all of this become a bigger piece of the pie relative to a car company? Because to me, comparing them to car companies isn’t necessarily the right thing to do either.
