Tesla is off to a bumpy start in 2024. Shares in the company fell 6 percent at the start of the year after it reported its first-ever annual decline in sales, but then rebounded with the news that its electric vehicle sales in China were up by nearly 9 percent. But according to Al Root, a senior writer at Barron’s, “Selling electric vehicles isn’t the most important thing right now” when it comes to Tesla’s stock. “Artificial intelligence is number one,” Root wrote on Monday, adding that Wall Street analysts are bullish on the company because

Tesla plans to sell AI-trained humanoid robots in the future. For now, AI-trained self-driving cars are a cause for optimism. Analysts have raised their price targets by an average of about $65 since the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. The consensus on Wall Street is that the second Trump administration will make it easier for Tesla to launch its self-driving, AI-trained robotaxi service in late 2025.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that better encapsulates the hellscape that awaits us this year. Musk generously funded Trump’s campaign, and has been rewarded with a co-chairmanship of the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency—but Wall Street is banking on much greater rewards for Musk’s various business endeavors. For once, Wall Street is........

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