Tesla’s $100 Billion Robotaxi Rally

Tesla is celebrating a massive win on Wall Street. Following the weekend launch of its long-awaited robotaxi service, the company’s shares jumped more than 10% in Monday trading session, adding a staggering $104 billion to its market capitalization and pushing the total value of the Elon Musk-led company to $1.14 trillion.

The surge was a direct response to the limited debut in Austin, Texas, where a small fleet of about a dozen Model Y SUVs began operating in a geofenced area. For investors, the focus wasn’t just on the cars, but on the technology powering them. Tesla is betting its entire autonomous strategy on its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, a departure from competitors like Waymo that rely on expensive sensors like LiDAR and radar.

For the launch, Tesla invited a handful of influencers and fans for the first rides. Unsurprisingly, their reviews were ecstatic.

“Screw it, I’m going to extend my stay in Austin another day,” posted Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor and one of the first riders. “I want to take some more Tesla Robotaxi rides.” When asked if he preferred the experience to Uber, his answer was simple: “Robotaxi.”

Robotaxi.

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 23, 2025

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull, was also invited. His takeaway was overwhelmingly positive. “There was a Tesla Operator sitting in the front passenger seat of the Robotaxi, but they were not permitted to comment on anything nor did they influence the car in any way,” Ives wrote. “To really put it into perspective, there was a moment where we drove up a narrow road going up a hill with cars parked on both sides with oncoming traffic and people opening their car doors into the road and the Robotaxi masterfully maneuvered with patience and safety among this chaos.”

Ives, who sees this as the start of a “$1 trillion autonomous journey,” concluded that Tesla “exceeded” his expectations and “has lit the spark for autonomous driving.”

🚨 Dan Ives of Wedbush has released a new note after riding in Tesla Robotaxis today in Austin:

“This afternoon we attended Tesla’s Robotaxi launch in Austin, TX and got the opportunity to take multiple rides in a Robotaxi. There was a Tesla Operator sitting in the front… pic.twitter.com/3cZ2UZKGAO

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 23, 2025

This is the culmination of a promise Elon Musk has been making for years. He envisions a future fleet that could, in his own grand predictions, boost Tesla’s market value by an additional $5 trillion to $10 trillion. It’s a vision shared by believers like Cathie Wood, whose ARK Invest predicts robotaxis could account for 90% of Tesla’s profits by 2029.

But beneath the hype, there’s a huge problem: the competition is already here.

Waymo, Google’s self-driving unit, is the current market leader and already operates a larger service in Austin, along with Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Zoox, backed by Amazon, is live in Las Vegas and San Francisco. For critics, this reality makes Musk’s projections seem overly optimistic.

Adding another wrinkle, Texas Governor Greg Abbott just signed a law requiring companies to obtain a state permit to operate self-driving vehicles. While the law doesn’t take effect until September 1, it underscores the regulatory hurdles Tesla must clear as it plans to expand to other cities.

The Austin launch was a masterfully executed event that captivated investors and sent the stock soaring. The question now is whether Tesla’s technology can live up to the hype and overcome the entrenched competition in the race to own the autonomous future.