Tesla's AI Investments and Upcoming Shareholder Vote Would Determine Future Growth: Morgan Stanley Analyst

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas reiterated an Overweight rating on Tesla Inc TSLA with a price target of $310.

Jonas highlights that the broader collection of Elon Musk’s businesses may collectively invest tens of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure in the coming years. 

The analyst points out that the cost of capital is deterministic for AI supremacy. 

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He noted that a Tesla without AI would set a precedent to increase the cost of capital across Elon’s other AI endeavors. 

In his opinion, Tesla’s success lowers Muskonomy’s cost of capital, while Tesla’s failure raises it. 

In addition to the cost of capital, Jonas noted that, on a fundamental level, the data, the infrastructure built, and the path to monetization (TAM) within Tesla are critical to Musk’s seemingly ‘adjacent’ AI efforts. 

Jonas flagged that the data captured by the car enhances AI learning and development. 

The analyst highlighted that the car’s unique attributes (mobile server, compute, thermal, energy storage) may be seen as more critical in the emerging AI-driven hybrid computing ecosystem. 

Over time, he expects to see Musk’s efforts within social media/gen-AI, space/communications, and automotive/transportation become more conspicuously linked. 

Jonas noted Tesla’s June 13 shareholder vote as significant to the company’s long-term strategic direction. He expects the event could drive material volatility in the stock. 

Price Actions: TSLA shares are trading lower by 3.93% at $179.26 at the last check on Wednesday.

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