Cathie Wood and Ark Invest trimmed Tesla stock holdings for a second consecutive stock market session on Wednesday as TSLA overtook an aggressive entry. Meanwhile, news reports named a specific date for the EV giant's June rollout of its robotaxi service. In addition, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang heaped praise on Elon Musk and Tesla late Wednesday.
Wood's ARK Innovation ETF on Wednesday sold 15,187 shares of Tesla for an estimated $5.42 million, according to Wood's ETF daily trade disclosures. This comes after Wood on Tuesday sold 27,377 Tesla shares. As of Thursday, Tesla stock was the top holding in the ARKK ETF, with a 13.23% weight and a market value of $753.55 million.
Tesla stock advanced as high as 367.71 intraday before closing up 0.4% to 358.43 for Thursday's stock market action. TSLA finished Thursday up 5.6% on the week, part of a 27% gain in May. Shares have advanced above a 354.99 buy point.
Nvidia, Tesla And The 'Multi-Trillion Dollar Industry'
Meanwhile, Nvidia's Jensen Huang in an interview with Bloomberg late Thursday said that he plans to "build many more computers together" with Musk and Tesla.
"His self-driving car, his Optimus. Every single one of them world class, every single one of them revolutionary. Every single one of them are going to be gigantic opportunities," Huang said.
"The Optimus opportunity is just around the corner. It's very likely that humanoid robots are going to be robots that we can deploy into the world relatively easily, and this is the first robot that really has a chance to achieve the high volume and technology scale necessary to advance technology," Huang said.
"I think this is likely the next multitrillion dollar industry and I'm very excited for him" the Nvidia head added, referring to Musk.
Tesla and Musk are major customers of Nvidia chips.
Musk has long been bullish on Optimus, and projects the company could be selling units sometime in the first half of 2026. The Tesla chief executive has also repeatedly stated that long term, Tesla's value will come from Optimus.
June 12 Robotaxi Launch
Wood's Tesla stock maneuver, for the second straight day, and Huang's comments about the robotaxi and Optimus robot came as Bloomberg reported that Tesla will launch the limited robotaxi service in Austin on June 12. The report is based on a "person familiar with the matter."
Tesla tested a Model Y with no one in the driver's seat for the first time this week, according to the report. Musk on X early Thursday wrote that "Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in the driver's seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents" in recent days.
"Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer," Musk added.
With June fast approaching, a somewhat clearer image is taking shape of what the Tesla robotaxi rollout will look like.
All About Robotaxi And Autonomy
After meeting with Tesla executives, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a recent research note that the robotaxi service will likely be around 10 to 20 cars, on public roads and be invite-only with plenty of tele-ops to ensure safety levels.
Musk, speaking with CNBC last week, said there will be about 10 robotaxi Model Ys in the first week and that there could be 1,000 units in a "few months."
At the time, Musk did not give a specific date for the rollout, but said it would come before end of June. The Tesla chief also confirmed there will be human supervisors for the autonomous trips. He also said that the robotaxi service will be geofenced, meaning portions of Austin will unavailable.
Elon Musk Says He Will Remain Tesla's CEO For At Least Five More Years
During the first-quarter earnings call in April, Musk said that Tesla was at that time still debating what the robotaxi service would look like. He suggested there would be "maybe 10 to 20" vehicles on day one.
Meanwhile, Musk also made it clear during that call that the robotaxi vehicles in Austin will be Model Ys.
"We expect to be selling fully autonomous rides in Austin in June," Musk said. "The team and I are laser focused on bringing robotaxi in Austin in June." He added that "unsupervised autonomy will first be solved for the Model Y in Austin."
Separately, the CyberCab product is on track for production next year, according to Tesla. The CyberCab will use the "unboxed" manufacturing system (a modular approach). Tesla executives said on the company's first-quarter earnings call that the unboxed process is "progressing," suggesting it's not yet ready.
Tesla Robotaxi Launches In A Few Weeks. These Are The Details.
Cathie Wood And Robotaxi
Wood and Ark Invest have long been superbullish on Tesla's autonomy push and robotaxi aims. On June 12 2024, Ark Invest updated its Tesla stock price target to 2,600 by 2029. It estimated that around 90% of Tesla's enterprise value and earnings will be attributed to the robotaxi business in 2029.
Wood recently stuck by that prediction.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest tends to purchase Tesla stock and other positions amid sell-offs or when they break below key moving averages. Without a robotaxi network and business, Ark Invest wrote in 2024, the TSLA price target would be around $350 per share.
"We remain confident that the service will launch within the next five years," Wood's Ark Invest said last year.
Tesla Stock Performance
On May 9, Tesla shares blasted above the 200-day moving average, offering investors an aggressive entry. Shares are still down about 11% this year, despite surging on robotaxi bets following the April 22 Q1 conference call. Shares are around 27% below their 488.54 peak on Dec. 18.
"We've lost some sales perhaps on the left but we've gained them on the right," Musk said in an interview May 20 at Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum in Abu Dhabi, referring to consumers on the political right and left.
"The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand," Musk said, adding that TSLA stock is evidence that Tesla EV sales are doing well.
"Our stock wouldn't be trading near all-time highs if things weren't in good shape, they're fine, don't worry about it," Musk said.
Tesla stock has a 21-day average true range of 4.69%. The ATR metric, available on IBD's MarketSurge charting tool, gauges the characteristic breadth of a stock's behavior. Stocks that tend to make large jumps or dives in daily action, the kind that can trigger sell rules and shake investors out of a stock, have a high ATR. Stocks that tend to make more incremental moves have lower ATRs.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now in a power trend. Investors can buy stocks with ATRs up to 8%, though they should be wary of being too concentrated in high-octane names.
Tesla stock has an 83 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. The Cathie Wood-backed company also has a 95 Relative Strength Rating and a 58 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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