Tesla's AI Future Is Worth $1 Trillion, Says Dan Ives: 'Golden Era Of Autonomous' Begins With Robotaxi Launch

As Tesla Inc. TSLA prepares to launch its highly anticipated robotaxi service in Austin on Sunday, June 22, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has predicted a transformative future for the company, pegging its artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving technology at a staggering $1 trillion valuation.

What Happened: In a post on X, Ives hailed the upcoming rollout as the start of a “golden era of autonomous” for Tesla, underscoring Elon Musk's vision to pivot the company toward driverless vehicles and AI innovation.

Ives' bullish forecast comes as Tesla gears up to debut its robotaxi service, a milestone first hinted at by Musk in January. The launch follows reports of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system logging over 1 billion miles of supervised autonomy data by 2024, fueling optimism among investors.

However, the move has sparked contention. On June 18, a group of Democratic Texas lawmakers urged Tesla to delay the launch until September, when a new autonomous-driving law takes effect, citing safety concerns over the technology's readiness.

Despite the lawmakers' request, Ives remains undeterred, suggesting the AI-driven future could significantly boost Tesla's market value in the coming years.

Why It Matters: Robotaxis are steadily growing in the U.S., as Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOGL GOOG Waymo announced it will be further expanding its presence in California.

TSLA shares were 1.79% higher in premarket on Friday. The stock was down 15.09% year-to-date, but it has returned 77.37% over the year.

About 27 analysts tracked by Benzinga, covering TSLA, have a consensus target price of $309.76 apiece, with a ‘hold’ rating.

The targets range from $19.05 to $500, and the recent ratings by Piper Sandler, Morgan Stanley, and Baird imply a 15.01% upside for the stock.

Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings shows that Tesla had a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long term. Its momentum ranking was solid; however, its value ranking was poor at the 9.62th percentile. The details of other metrics are available here.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were mixed in premarket on Friday. The SPY was down 0.29% at $595.68, while the QQQ rose 0.19% to $529.16, according to Benzinga Pro data.