[Click e-Stock] "Tesla Eases Political Risk as Musk Leaves White House"

On June 2, Hana Securities maintained its "Outperform" (above market return) investment rating and a target price of $500 (approximately 690,000 KRW) for the U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla, stating, "With Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, officially stepping away from any role in the Trump administration, a foundation has been established for Musk to fully dedicate himself to Tesla and the realization of its autonomous driving vision." The previous trading day's closing price was $356.9 (about 490,000 KRW).

On this day, Park Seungjin, a researcher at Hana Securities, stated, "Tesla has reached a point where the era of autonomous driving is about to begin in earnest. The autonomous driving launch event scheduled for the 12th will be an important turning point for both Musk and Tesla as they move into the next phase of growth."

This year, Tesla faced the burden of "brand image damage" as Musk became deeply involved with the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, which also had a negative impact on Tesla's core growth narrative. However, over the past month, Musk has made several key decisions that seem to be steering Tesla toward a future focused on autonomous driving and robotics.

As a result, Tesla is expected to emerge as one of the leading pure-play beneficiaries of artificial intelligence (AI) over the next ten years, alongside Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Palantir, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet.

Researcher Park commented, "The key point is that Tesla is rapidly moving to the center of AI innovation. It is estimated that Tesla has the potential to create at least $1 trillion (about 1,384 trillion KRW) in corporate value solely from its AI and autonomous driving businesses," he said. "There is a high possibility that many of the complex federal regulatory barriers that Musk and Tesla have faced regarding Full Self-Driving (FSD) under the Trump administration will be significantly eased."

Additionally, Park stated, "In a bull market scenario, Tesla's market capitalization could reach $2 trillion by the end of next year," adding, "In particular, as approximately $1 trillion in value from the AI and autonomous driving sectors begins to be fully reflected in the company's valuation, the next 12 to 18 months will mark a significant turning point as Tesla moves toward a $2 trillion valuation."