NEW YORK, February 7, 2026, 07:28 EST — Market shut down for the day.
- Tesla shares ended Friday at $411.11, up 3.5%.
- Tesla’s ramped-up U.S. solar manufacturing recruitment and a new AI training center in China landed in the spotlight for investors this day.
- Investors are eyeing next week’s U.S. jobs and inflation numbers, which could tip the scales on rate-cut expectations and shift appetite for growth stocks.
Tesla Inc jumped 3.5% to finish at $411.11 on Friday, wrapping up the week with gains. U.S. markets remain shut Saturday.
Tesla’s stock keeps tracking the “AI trade,” lumped in with other artificial intelligence names, while investors dig into whether that $600 billion outlay by the tech giants will actually deliver. “It’s not that the trade is over, but it got too pricey,” SanJac Alpha CIO Andrew Wells said. 1
Tesla’s valuation now leans heavily on expectations for autonomy, software, and energy hardware, not only vehicle sales. That means the stock can get hit when tech investors pull back on risk.
Executives at the company are ramping up hiring as part of Elon Musk’s 100-gigawatt U.S. solar manufacturing push, set for completion by end-2028. Just last week, Tesla rolled out a new solar panel built at its Buffalo, New York, plant—solar products engineering manager Seth Winger described it on LinkedIn as “an audacious, ambitious project.” To put Musk’s goal in perspective, current U.S. output sits around 65 GW for solar modules and just 3.2 GW for solar cells, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. TD Cowen’s Jeff Osborne remains unconvinced, calling those numbers “aspirational rather than likely” for the midterm. 2
Tesla is running an AI training center in China that’s geared toward local use cases and assisted driving, according to company vice president Tao Lin, as reported by Chinese media Cailianshe. Investor sentiment could shift fast if there’s evidence this effort makes it into actual products—autonomy now plays a bigger role in Tesla’s narrative. 3
Friday’s broad rally sent the Dow soaring past 50,000, marking a milestone for the blue-chip index. “The Dow is kind of the people’s index,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive at Horizon Investment Services. The surge helped reverse losses sparked by recent concerns over artificial intelligence. 4
Tesla’s latest ambitions carry their own set of execution hurdles. Hitting that solar goal? It means ramping up supply chains and factories—quickly. The advanced driver-assistance push isn’t cleared either; regulators still have questions. And if growth stocks get slammed, Tesla often feels the hit harder than others.
Traders want specifics: solar sites, project timing, spending levels. They’re also watching to see if the China AI push moves past development. Monday’s open will reveal if Friday’s bounce holds up.
The macro lineup for next week has potential to move the stock: the U.S. January jobs report lands Feb. 11, with CPI for January following on Feb. 13, both slated for 8:30 a.m. Eastern, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Markets often shift Fed rate cut bets on these figures—putting growth names like Tesla in play. 5
