By Akash Sriram
(Reuters) -Tesla’s market value closed above the $1 trillion mark in a sharp rally on Friday, on expectations that CEO Elon Musk’s companies will get favorable treatment under President-elect Donald Trump for his extensive support during the poll campaign.
The electric automaker’s shares jumped 8.2% to $321.22, catapulting the company’s valuation above the trillion-dollar mark for the first time in more than two years.
The stock gained 29% this week, adding more than $230 billion in market capitalization, its best since January 2023.
“Tesla (NASDAQ:) and CEO Elon Musk are perhaps the biggest winners from the election result, and we believe Trump’s victory will help expedite regulatory approval of the company’s autonomous driving technology,” said Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.
The billionaire could push for favorable regulation of autonomous vehicles that Tesla plans and also get the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to hold off on potential enforcement actions involving the safety of Tesla’s current driver-assistance systems, a source had told Reuters.
Musk has focused on self-driving vehicle technology, ditching plans to build an economy car priced at under $30,000. However, development and regulatory hurdles have delayed the commercialization of such technologies.
“If Musk can convince Trump to establish federal autonomous vehicle rules, we think that’s a good thing for the auto industry because we think firms want one set of rules rather than each state making their own,” said David Whiston, equity strategist at Morningstar.
Musk’s wealth topped $300 billion, according to Forbes real-time billionaires list.
Tesla shares jumped in late October after the company reported a rise in quarterly profit margin and forecast 20% to 30% growth in deliveries next year.
It has been the world’s most valuable automaker for years, with Japan’s Toyota Motor (NYSE:), China BYD (SZ:) and others trailing by a wide margin.
Tesla shares trade 93.47 times their 12-month forward earnings estimates, compared with 38.57 for AI chip giant Nvidia (NASDAQ:), 30.77 for Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and 6.29 for Ford (NYSE:).
