Tesla's stock climbs after Musk sends this $1 billion vote of confidence

By James Rogers

Tesla's stock has underperformed this year, but Musk is putting more of his money where his mouth is as he makes his first open-market purchase of shares since 2020

Tesla CEO Elon Musk just bought more than 2.5 million Tesla shares on the open market.

Tesla Inc. shares are rising more than 8% in premarket trading after Chief Executive Elon Musk purchased $1 billion of the electric-vehicle maker's stock - a clear sign of confidence in his ability to grow the company's value further.

With the purchase, Musk is tying himself even more to Tesla's (TSLA) success, a move that appears to be pleasing investors. His purchase comes hot on the heels of a huge long-term pay package proposed for the chief executive, which could be worth around $1 trillion if he can grow Tesla's market cap by $7.5 trillion. Tesla's board has also approved a controversial $29 billion award in stock to Musk.

Now Musk, through a trust, has bought an additional 2,568,732 shares on the open market, according to an SEC filing put out before Monday's open. At Friday's closing price of $395.94, the purchase is valued at $1.02 billion. The buying action means Musk now owns about 509 million shares, when combining direct and indirect ownership, together amounting to about 15.8% of the company's shares outstanding.

This was Musk's first open-market purchase of shares since February 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Tesla shares have fallen 2% in 2025, compared with the S&P 500 index's SPX 12% gain.

About 78.3 million Tesla shares are held short, representing roughly 2.9% of the float, according to FactSet data.

2025 has been an eventful year for Musk and Tesla, marked by protests against the CEO's ties to President Donald Trump and his involvement with the controversial Department of Government Efficiency. Tesla has also faced intensifying competition, notably from Chinese EV makers.

Nonetheless, Wedbush analyst and noted Tesla bull Dan Ives described Musk as a "wartime CEO" in a note released Monday, citing the company's opportunities in autonomous driving and AI. "We believe Tesla and Musk are heading into a very important chapter of their growth story as the AI revolution takes hold and the robotaxi opportunity is now a reality on the doorstep," he wrote. Ives believes that AI is worth $1 trillion to Tesla's valuation alone over the next few years.

-James Rogers

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09-15-25 0837ET