Tesla leads the S&P 500 Index as AI premium plays in
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was the leading gainer in the S&P 500 Index on Monday after Morgan Stanley upgraded the electric vehicle stock and called it a top pick.
Analyst Adam Jonas turned very bullish on Tesla (TSLA) after factoring in AI upside from the Austin-based company's Dojo supercomputer. Notably, analyst Adam Jonas said Tesla (TSLA) has built a custom AI ASIC chip, that, due to its core function of processing vision-based data for autonomous driving use cases, can operate more efficiently than the leading cutting-edge general-purpose chips on the market at a fraction of the cost.
"While it is difficult to explicitly validate the many claims Tesla has made about Dojo's cost and performance, we believe Tesla has a chance of bringing forth a competitive customized solution given the company's innovation track record and capabilities," noted Jonas.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 7.32% at 11:14 a.m. to a six-week high of $266.85. The EV stock still traded far short of the 52-week high of $313.80 and Morgan Stanley's base case price target of $400 or bull case price target of $550.
Tesla (TSLA) was not alone in the electric vehicle sector in having a strong day. Workhorse Group (WKHS) was up 11.64%, Volcon (VLCN) jumped 13.57%, and XPeng (XPEV) rallied 4.15%.

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