Cathie Wood says Tesla could hit $2,000 by 2027 on robotaxi opportunity

Published Thu, Apr 20 20234:58 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Apr 21 20238:03 AM EDT

Ark Invest's Cathie Wood said Thursday her EV darling Tesla could hit $2,000 in five years on the back of a robotaxi boom. The innovation investor updated her price target for the Elon Musk company to $2,000 by 2027, a whopping 1,127% increase from Tesla's Thursday close of $162.99. Her valuation would also translate into a more than $5 trillion market cap for Tesla. Wood said her projections include a $1,400 target as her bear case and $2,500 as her bull case. "It is one of the most important investment opportunities of our lifetimes," Wood said on CNBC's " Closing Bell Overtime " of robotaxis. Wood believes the robotaxi opportunity could deliver $8 trillion to $10 trillion in revenue by 2030. Tesla began to discuss its ambitions in self-driving technology in 2016. Tesla is the biggest holding in her flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) fund, with a 9.4% weighting. The innovation investor has been a longtime Tesla bull, betting on the accelerated shift to electric vehicles. Her previous target was $1,500 by 2026. The innovation investor said she wasn't fazed by Tesla's first quarter earnings that triggered a near 10% sell-off Thursday. She bought 219,810 shares of Tesla Thursday for ARKK, according to Ark Invest's daily trade update. "We want Tesla to scale its unit. Each one of them now presents the potential for robotaxi and robotaxi fleet," Wood said. "We think that it is very smart to maximize units." Musk on Wednesday hinted that he's prioritizing growth over profitability amid a series of price cuts on the electric vehicles. Tesla cut prices for some of its Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles for the sixth time this year amid concerns about the effect on its profit margins. "We've taken a view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here versus a lower volume and higher margin," Musk said on Tesla's earnings call Wednesday evening. Musk stressed that he expects the company to be able to generate significant profit through autonomy.