The managing director of The Future Fund LLC, Gary Black, thinks that the recent video involving an Optimus Robot at the company's Miami event over the weekend has raised questions and is driving Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock down.
Optimus Clearly Not Scalable, Says Gary Black
In a post shared on the social media platform X on Monday, Black outlined that the recent video has raised eyebrows about Optimus being "AI-driven" or tele-operated. "If tele-operated rather than AI-driven, Optimus would clearly not be scalable as it would need one tele-operator for every robot," the investor shared.
Sawyer Merritt Weighs In
Quoting Black's post, Merritt criticized the investor's thoughts that the stock was sliding because one Optimus robot "fell down." Merritt added that “it was already known" that the Optimus robots serving people at the EV giant’s various events were tele-operated, also outlining that the video was being blown out of proportion by people on social media.
Optimus' Tele-Operated Concerns
The comments follow concerns about Optimus robots being teleoperated after a video from the company's Miami event showcased one of the robots mimicking the action of taking off a headset/headgear, except it wasn't wearing anything of that sort. The robot then fell.
Interestingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had claimed that the robot wasn’t teleoperated when Optimus was showcased shadowing a martial arts expert's moves, adding that Optimus was AI-driven. Musk had also claimed that the Optimus robot would represent over 80% of Tesla’s future value.
Investors, Analysts Bearish On Tesla
It's worth noting that Tesla was recently downgraded to Equal-weight by investment bank Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco, who took over from Tesla bull Adam Jonas, who held an Outperform rating for the stock since 2023.
Investor Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, also dropped the EV giant's shares with the firm's ARK Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKK), selling over 2,100 shares of Tesla. The trade was valued at approximately $923,118. Tesla remains ARKK's top holding, boasting 12.19% weightage in the ETF's investments.
Tesla scores well on Momentum, while offering satisfactory Quality and Growth, but poor Value. It also has a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term. For more such insights, sign up for Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings today!
Price Action: TSLA dropped 3.39% to $439.58 at Market close, declining 0.02% during After-hours to $439.49, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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