probably a mix of a) hype. stock market actually like a beauty contest[0] where what matters is other's perceptions. it's a secondary market. a lot of investor

probably a mix of a) hype. stock market actually like a beauty contest[0] where what matters is other's perceptions. it's a secondary market. a lot of investors, both sophisticated and not, think tesla is beautiful. b) expectations of future technology. Cruise just announced a self-driving taxi initiative. If you think tesla has as-good or better tech, you might now think they have access to that finally manifesting market. Better unit economics than for human car sales. c) track record of meeting/beating expectations. By now tesla has outlived the shorts. Beyond shedding off many of the shorts that were exerting downward pressure on price, elon musk's mantra of "innovation as his competitive moat" has outlived the doubters among traditional investors. Large public equity investors originally were very skeptical of that fuzzy idea of a moat, especially considering stunts like when Elon released a lot of the electric driving patents for free (!). But a decade later, nothing else on the market has come close to Tesla's product despite several also-ran attempts. It may also help to know that SpaceX is doing well, and Elon has shown willingness to personally bail out his companies during moments of trouble. This decreases downside risk. [0] keynes' famous essay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest