Tesla's stock rallies to end a rough week

By William Gavin

The company is making inroads on two potential growth segments: driverless cars and solar energy

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants his company to become a major solar manufacturer.

Tesla's stock traded higher on Friday, riding a scattering of positive news to cap off an otherwise rough week.

Tesla (TSLA) shares climbed 3.5% Friday, reducing some of their losses sustained throughout the week. Ahead of Friday, the stock's five-day loss stood at about 8%. The S&P 500 SPX rose almost 2% on Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA gained nearly 2.5% and closed above 50,000 for the first time.

The broader market's momentum on Friday may have been partially responsible for some of Tesla's gains. Still, investors may also have reacted to some positive news surrounding the company's ambitious plans in China and at home.

Tesla executive Grace Tao told Shanghai-based media outlet Cailian on Friday that the company has started an artificial-intelligence training center in China focused on developing technology for the local market. Tao didn't provide the outlet with further details about the center's location or how much money was invested in it.

The center should help Tesla refine its advanced driver-assistance system, which was partially introduced in China in February 2025. As a result of Chinese rules that block Tesla from sending data collected in China to the U.S., the company used publicly available videos to train its software, according to CEO Elon Musk.

The current system Tesla sells in China has been branded as Intelligent Assisted Driving and offers more limited capabilities than the Full Self-Driving system offered in the U.S. Musk said last month that the company expects to get approval from Chinese regulators for a wider launch of FSD in February. If that can be achieved, it would help Tesla compete with growing offerings from rival Chinese electric-vehicle makers, many of which already offer ADAS technology.

Tesla is also reportedly taking an active look at how to meet Musk's plan to generate 100 gigawatts annually of solar-cell energy "across the entire supply chain," which he announced on a call with investors in January. First Solar (FSLR), the U.S. market leader in the solar-cell space, expects to generate 14 gigawatts in 2026.

Tesla is exploring sites across Arizona and Idaho, as well as Buffalo, N.Y., where it already makes solar products, according to Bloomberg News. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that capacity at the Buffalo factory could reach 10 gigawatts, or the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors.

Read: Now that SpaceX and xAI have merged, is Tesla next?

Earlier in the week, Tesla and SpaceX leaders toured Chinese solar facilities, according to Cailian, which also reported that Musk's space firm signed an order with a solar-cell equipment maker. Musk also plans for SpaceX to develop up to 100 gigawatts of annual solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S.

"The solar opportunity is underestimated. We think the best way to add significant capability to the grid is solar and batteries on Earth and solar in space," Musk said on a recent earnings call, according to a transcript.

-William Gavin

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02-06-26 1618ET