Tesla Stock Rises. Elon Musk Talks Up 'Special' Optimus 3 Robot. -- Barrons.com
Tesla stock was up a little in premarket trading, still stuck in neutral while investors wait for AI news.They got a very small AI morsel on Wednesday.Shares of the electric vehicle were up 0.3% at $377.17 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up about 0.1%.Coming into Wednesday, Tesla stock was down about 16% year to date and down about 13% since Tesla reported fourth-quarter earnings in January.That quarter was fine, but Tesla said it would spend some $20 billion, now raised to $25 billion, on new plants and equipment to accelerate its AI projects, including robo-taxis and robots. Those products aren't generating significant sales and earnings yet, leaving investors hungry for progress.There has been some progress, but it's been slow. Tesla is operating robo-taxis in four cities. It hopes to be in many more cities by the end of the year. Tesla also hasn't shown off version three of its Optimus humanoid robot yet. Tesla was going to unveil
