Tesla Inc blew past $500 billion in market value on Tuesday as investors snapped up its shares in the run-up to its debut in the S&P 500, extending a meteoric rally that has seen it surge over 500 percent this year.
The California electric carmaker’s stock rose nearly 5 percent, putting its market capitalization at $519 billion.
Tesla is Wall Street’s seventh most valuable company, just behind Berkshire Hathaway, and its shares have rallied over 30 percent since Nov. 16, when it was announced Tesla would join the S&P 500 benchmark.
Index funds that replicate the S&P 500 will have to buy more than $50 billion worth of Tesla’s stock ahead of its inclusion to the index on Dec. 21. Additionally, Goldman Sachs estimated last week that actively managed mutual funds could buy another $8 billion of Tesla shares after it is added.
Tesla has become by far the world’s most valuable automaker, despite production that is a fraction of Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen or General Motors Co.
Chinese electric carmaker Nio Inc fell 4.9 percent on Tuesday, trimming its gain in November to 72 percent.
“One of the core underpinnings of the Biden platform will be around pushing clean energy and zero-emissions vehicles with hopes of accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles and public charging outlets by 2030,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a research note.
