Tesla is betting everything on one idea: that your car shouldn’t just sit there doing nothing—it should make you money.

That’s the promise of the robotaxi.

No driver.
No steering wheel.
No limits.

Just a self-driving vehicle that picks people up, drops them off, and pays for itself—while you’re asleep or at work.

It sounds like science fiction.

But Tesla isn’t talking about the future anymore.

Someday, your car will pay you rent.

Sound crazy?

Good.

That’s where the biggest bets—and biggest payoffs—live.

Ready? Let’s dig in.

We're going to see exactly what that looks like. But before we dive in, let's set the scene:

Before talking Tesla, let’s check on the NASDAQ.

Where’s it sitting these days?

You might say:

Well, let’s be real.

It was behind for a while.

But right now?

NASDAQ just hit an all-time high.

When?

Literally on Friday.

It broke its previous record.

The S&P 500 also set a new all-time high.

We’re recording this on Sunday, so that Friday close is the latest number.

Some folks like to doom-post about tech stocks:

But come on. That was weeks ago.

This index fell hard in April because of tariffs and fears of trade escalation.

Dropped big-time.

But here's the crazy part:

It recovered all of that in just about 80 days.

Two and a half months.

Now it's past the previous record.

And that's despite:
✅ Trade tensions still not fully resolved.
✅ Ukraine war.
✅ Middle East conflicts.
✅ China/US tit-for-tat.

All those macro headwinds.

Still—the market broke its record.

It’s honestly kind of absurd.

Investors love this V-shaped drama.

You watch the index tank to 15,000.

Then you see it roar back to 20,000.

You get people saying:

Yeah, no kidding.

It’s that classic "shoulda, woulda, coulda" moment.

The truth is?

These are strong markets.

You might hate it.

You might think it's all hype.

But the numbers don’t lie.

NASDAQ just hit ~20,300.

All-time high.

Recovered everything it lost in April, and then some.

You see the story there?

Tariffs, trade wars, wars in Europe and the Middle East.

None of that stopped it.

It’s like markets just shrugged and said:

So here’s the question:

What stocks are driving that?

Apple?

Nope.

Sorry.

If you think Apple is leading the charge, you're a little behind.

Who is leading it?

✅ NVIDIA.

NVIDIA has been the absolute monster in this rally.

It has claimed, once again, the title of world’s largest company by market cap.

Just think about that.

In recent weeks it has posted mind-blowing gains:

Investors are practically throwing money at it.

Market cap?

Roughly $3.78 trillion.

That’s more than Apple.

More than Microsoft.

More than Amazon and Google.

It’s insane.

People are asking:

It’s basically bigger than entire stock markets.

So how did NVIDIA do this?

What’s the thesis?

Simple:

AI.

Their CEO, Jensen Huang, is basically the high priest of the AI gold rush right now.

He got up and said:

And investors said:

Because they see this:

✅ Billions of AI-enabled devices.
✅ Self-driving cars everywhere.
✅ Robots in factories.
✅ AI data centers sucking power and spitting out LLMs.

And the best part?

They all need NVIDIA’s chips.

It’s like this classic gold rush story.

Back in the day, who got rich?

The miners?

Eh, some.

But the guys who sold the shovels, the picks, the jeans?

They made out like bandits.

📌NVIDIA is the guy selling shovels.

They don’t care which AI company wins.

As long as everyone’s fighting over the gold, NVIDIA sells them the tools.

And they’re not even pretending anymore.

Jensen literally said:

They want you to see them as a platform.

They’re selling hardware, software, services.

They’re providing the AI infrastructure.

They’re not just a component vendor—they’re the entire foundation.

So, investors are betting:

✅ AI keeps growing.
✅ NVIDIA keeps selling picks and shovels.
✅ They take a cut from everyone.

📌Meanwhile, U.S. chip companies are licking their chops.

If NVIDIA says, “We’re not even making some of these chips ourselves anymore,”

Guess who’s supplying?

✅ Micron.
✅ AMD.
✅ Intel.

The whole American semi industry is part of this AI boom.

Alright—so we talked about NVIDIA’s insane rally.

But what about Apple?

You might assume Apple is also leading the charge.

It’s Apple, right?

Come on—it’s the most famous stock on earth.

Every grandma owns Apple in her retirement account.

But let me tell you:

Apple’s been lagging.

Big-time.

Let’s talk about WWDC, Apple’s giant yearly developer conference in California.

It happened in June.

Everyone was hyped.

Why?

Because every Big Tech company has been screaming:

✅ Microsoft is rolling out Copilot everywhere.
✅ Google is adding generative AI to Search.
✅ NVIDIA is literally selling the AI picks and shovels.

So what did investors want from Apple?

Simple.

AI.

They wanted the mother of all Siri upgrades.

They wanted real-time, on-device, super-personal ChatGPT.

But what did they get?

Ready?

Yup.

Apple’s big flex was a semi-transparent UI on iPhone.

Now, don’t get me wrong.

It’s pretty.

It’s elegant.

Apple is fantastic at design.

But investors didn’t want design.

They wanted AI firepower.

Apple did mention Apple Intelligence.

But when it came time to show Siri?

They… basically didn't.

They said:

Which is the corporate way of saying:

Can you imagine that?

Apple got on stage at their own flagship conference and said:

Investors were not impressed.

Apple’s stock dropped after WWDC.

Let’s look at the past 12 months:

✅ NVIDIA: +27%
✅ Microsoft: +11%
❌ Apple: -5%

That’s right.

Negative.

For ages, Apple was #1 in market cap.

Now?

✅ #1 is NVIDIA.
✅ #2 is Microsoft.
✅ Apple is down at #3.

And it’s not even close anymore.

Apple’s at ~$3 trillion market cap, but slipping.

While NVIDIA and Microsoft are pressing up near $3.7–$3.8 trillion.

Investors are starting to ask:

They might not admit it.

But the market is already voting.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is playing it smart.

They're not screaming from the rooftops.

But they own a huge piece of OpenAI.

They’re stuffing Copilot into everything:

✅ Word.
✅ Excel.
✅ PowerPoint.
✅ Teams.

They’re taking the old boring Office Suite and turning it into a cash-printing AI service.

It’s boring—but it works.

Investors love boring when it makes money.

Microsoft stock is up ~11% in a year.

Not NVIDIA-level crazy.

But solid.

That’s why they’re now battling NVIDIA for the #1 spot.

You hear about the "Magnificent Seven"?

✅ Apple
✅ Microsoft
✅ NVIDIA
✅ Amazon
✅ Google (Alphabet)
✅ Meta
✅ Tesla

But Apple’s slipping.

And Tesla?

Tesla’s in trouble too.

Let’s talk Tesla.

This is where it gets spicy.

YTD? Down ~20%.

One of the worst Magnificent Seven performers.

Why?

✅ Elon distracted with Twitter/X.
✅ Political spats.
✅ Fighting with everyone.
✅ EV demand slowing.
✅ Price cuts hurting margins.

Market cap has dipped under $900 billion.

Barely clinging to $1 trillion.

If it drops too much?

✅ It risks getting booted from the Magnificent Seven.

Elon had to do something big.

✅ Enter the Robotaxi.

He’s been promising it for years.

“1 million robotaxis by 2020!”

❌ Didn’t happen.

Now?

2025

He’s promising it’s finally real.

✅ On June 23, he unveiled Tesla’s first Robotaxi pilot.

And this is classic Musk:

✅ Hype it to the moon.
✅ Deliver something impressive but flawed.
✅ Promise scaling.
✅ Spark debate: genius or con artist?

Tesla stock moves on every tweet.

✅ 10 vehicles.
✅ All Model Ys.
✅ No fancy “Cybercab” design.
✅ No futuristic glass domes.

Just modified existing Model Ys with FSD software.

✅ No one in the driver’s seat.
✅ Safety monitor in the front passenger seat.
✅ Specific Austin routes only.
✅ Invite-only.
✅ $4.20 per ride (because Elon loves 420 jokes).

Some rides were impressive:

✅ Navigated narrow hills.
✅ Dealt with cars opening doors.
✅ Managed tricky turns.

But also:

❌ One car went the wrong way.
❌ Another stopped in traffic and said “Get out.”
❌ One slammed brakes at 40 mph screaming: “For your safety!”

Classic Musk.
Half genius.
Half beta-test.

Elon sells the dream.
Reality is more humble.

✅ 10 cars.
✅ One city.
✅ Carefully selected routes.
✅ No bad weather service.
✅ No minors.
✅ Midnight to 6 a.m. shutdown.

✅ There’s a safety monitor onboard.
✅ Remote teleoperators ready to intervene.

Tesla refused to say how often humans stepped in.

Conspiracies spread:

Tesla said:

✅ “We’ll scale when it’s safe.”

But investors want transparency.

✅ ~1,500 robotaxis.
✅ 4 US cities.
✅ 10M+ paid rides.

But geofenced.

✅ Fully mapped.
✅ Extremely cautious.

Tesla’s pitch?

✅ “We’ll drive anywhere humans can.”

Riskier.
But huge upside.

Elon:

Sound familiar?

He said 1 million by 2020.

Didn’t happen.

But it’s his style:

✅ Make huge promise.
✅ Build hype.
✅ Force delivery.

Love it or hate it—it moves the stock.

Cars idle 95% of the time.

Elon says:

✅ “It should make you money.”

Imagine:

✅ Drive to work.
✅ Car earns rides all day.
✅ You get passive income.

Airbnb for cars.
Uber without drivers.

✅ Disrupt Uber/Lyft.
✅ Change ownership.
✅ New revenue streams.

This is about:

✅ AI.
✅ Chips.
✅ Logistics.
✅ Urban planning.
✅ Regulation.

It’s a battle of visions.
A battle of empires.
A battle of egos.

✅ Elon Musk isn’t backing down.
✅ Jeff Bezos isn’t backing down.
✅ Sundar Pichai wants Google in every ride.
✅ Jensen Huang wants NVIDIA in every brain.

It’s not about Q2 earnings.

✅ It’s about shaping the next 20 years.

Even if half of this vision comes true?

✅ It changes everything.