Wall Street: Tesla worth 90 billion more thanks to Chinese visit to Musk

New York turned green. Apple won in the run-up to the quarterly results. Tesla shot up 17 percent now that the car manufacturer may also market its self-driving software in China.

The American indicators rebounded. The Dow Jones

gained 0.4 percent, as did the tech stock exchange Nasdaq

.

Investors are preparing for the results of two major players later this week: Amazon

and Apple

. The latter’s share rose 2.5 percent, although investors are preparing for weaker results.

According to research firm Counterpoint, sales of iPhones in China have fallen by 19 percent. The decline is remarkable because Chinese New Year was recently celebrated. During that period, the Chinese traditionally buy many gifts. Increased competition in particular appears to be the cause of weak sales.

Another problem is artificial intelligence. Competitors such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta Platforms are working hard in this area, but Apple remains rather foggy about its future. Yet there have been reports in recent weeks that the company is working on AI. For example, all new Mac computers would have AI functionalities, according to sources from the Bloomberg news agency. JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee said he also expected AI updates for iPhones. He called that an entry point for investors.

Due to all the market concerns, Apple has fallen 6 percent since the beginning of this year, while the S&P500 index has risen almost 8 percent. The number set may possibly change that.

Tesla

saw a spurt of more than 15 percent after CEO Elon Musk visited China, making the company instantly worth $90 billion more on the stock exchange. Two independent sources told the Reuters news agency that the e-car maker has reached an agreement with Baidu to use the Chinese tech giant’s mapping license to collect data on the country’s public roads. This is important for the most important service for the company at the moment: FSD.

According to Musk, Tesla has invested so much in AI for the system that its effectiveness is improving rapidly. The model is currently in version 12.3 and the CEO advises anyone who has not yet tried it to take a demo. “Otherwise you don’t know what Tesla actually is,” he said during the call after the company’s latest results.

After the US, Musk hopes to also prepare the system for China, with the ultimate goal of obtaining permission to allow cars to drive fully autonomously. Of course, policymakers, in both China and the US, will not simply approve that without being sure that the system is very secure. Musk thinks the system works so well that autonomous driving will ‘save lives’. He thinks that this will cause policy makers to change tack.

According to Musk, making cars drive autonomously could mean ‘the greatest value creation ever’. In other words, it is the main reason to buy Tesla shares. “Anyone who does not believe that we can solve autonomous driving should not invest in us,” he said in the most recent call.