Elon Musk Makes a $1B Bet on Tesla

Tesla has gotten a new vote of confidence from its CEO. The company's shares surged Monday after Elon Musk disclosed his largest-ever purchase of Tesla stock, acquiring 2.57 million shares on Friday at a cost of about $1 billion, per CNBC. This marks Musk's first open-market buy since 2020, and investors appeared to interpret the move as a sign of renewed confidence from the company's leader, sending the stock up 8% in Monday's early trading. The Guardian sees the purchase—far outpacing Musk's 2020 buy of about 200,000 shares for around $10 million—as part of "Musk's push for greater control over Tesla." Prior to this acquisition, Musk owned about 13% of the electric carmaker.

Tesla's stock has been on a rollercoaster this year, weighed down by slower sales, controversy tied to Musk's political activities, and the phasing out of some electric vehicle incentives under the Trump administration. Despite these headwinds, Tesla shares have rallied more than 25% over the past three months, although they remain slightly down for the year. The consensus target still predicts a 20% slide, but some analysts see long-term upside if Musk delivers on shifting Tesla's focus toward autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, and robotics. (Musk could potentially receive up to $1 trillion over the next decade as part of a new compensation package.)