New York, May 20, 2026, 14:03 (EDT)
Tesla Inc shares rose Wednesday after Lithuania said yes to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving rollout, making it the second country in Europe to do so. Investors took it as more proof for Tesla’s autonomy story. The stock, trading on the Nasdaq, was up around 2.5% at $414.10 in the last check, after hitting $415.10 earlier.
Tesla shares are under the microscope as investors weigh the company more as a software and AI play than just a traditional carmaker. Its Full Self-Driving system, or FSD, is a supervised driver-assist tech that does some driving but still needs the person behind the wheel to stay alert.
Stocks pushed higher on Wall Street as markets bounced back. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were all up late Wednesday morning, according to Reuters, with lower oil prices, falling Treasury yields, and a rally in chip names ahead of Nvidia’s earnings giving support. “There’s renewed positive sentiment because oil prices are down, yields are down,” Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management, told Reuters. Reuters
Tesla posted on X that its FSD software is launching in Lithuania following Dutch approval last month, Reuters said. Lithuania’s transport safety agency said it accepted the Dutch certification. Belgium has started authorization in Flanders, and Greece’s transport ministry said it is preparing a bill to enable a similar approval.
Musk has kept pushing the same point in the U.S. On Monday, he told a Tel Aviv mobility conference by video that self-driving cars already run without human safety drivers in Texas and should roll out across the U.S. this year. “Probably 90% of all distance driven will be driven by the AI in a self-driving car” within five to 10 years, he said. Reuters
Wall Street isn’t focused on Tesla’s quarterly delivery figures right now. “As ever with Tesla, a few thousand cars either way is unlikely to move the dial on valuation,” Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told Reuters last month. “The bulk of the investment case rests on what is coming next rather than where the core auto business sits today.” Reuters
Tesla plans to spend big on its future. The company in April hiked its 2026 capital spending target to over $25 billion. CEO Elon Musk called the spend “well justified” by future revenue. CFO Vaibhav Taneja said Tesla is headed into a “very big capital-investment phase.” The cash is going into assets like factories, chips, and computing hardware. Reuters
Tesla’s main business is still selling cars, but that part is feeling pressure. The company delivered 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter, missing Wall Street forecasts. It produced 50,363 more cars than it delivered, which pushed up inventory. Seth Goldstein at Morningstar said the ongoing issue with EU FSD approval and the loss of U.S. tax credits will likely keep putting pressure on deliveries.
Competition is heating up for both EVs and robotaxis. China’s Xpeng said Monday it started mass production of its first robotaxi and will roll out pilot operations in the second half of 2026. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, stays in the lead pack of U.S. robotaxi makers. Tesla lost the top spot in global EV sales last year to China’s BYD, according to Reuters in January.
Tesla’s stock gives it little margin for error on execution. The company was valued near $1.47 trillion, with the shares changing hands at almost 380 times earnings, the latest data show. That price level bakes in a big bet that growth lands as expected.
The risks are clear. Reuters said this month that regulators in several European countries questioned FSD, citing issues like speeding, performance on icy roads, and possible workarounds to driver attention features. Reuters also reported Tesla’s Texas robotaxi service had long waits, was hard to book, and struggled with drop-offs. If safety issues, slow EU approvals, or soft robotaxi demand hit, the current premium on autonomy could turn into a valuation problem.
Tesla is getting some credit on the tape for incremental progress. Lithuania isn’t China or a full U.S. robotaxi rollout, but it’s another country added. For a stock priced on future moves, that was enough to bring in buyers.
