Tesla shares fell more than 5% on Tuesday early afternoon, as investors reacted to Nvidia’s open-source self-driving software platform, which it plans to deploy in robotaxi fleets starting next year.
The Wall Street is counting on the progress of several Tesla-related projects this year to continue to drive the company’s stock, which reached a new all-time high in late December, nearly hitting $500 per share.
These include the start of Cybercab production, the unveiling of Optimus V3, and the expansion of the Robotaxi service, both in terms of geography and vehicle autonomy (as Tesla removes safety operators from the cars).
On December 22, shares reached a new all time record of $498.83.
Then, between December 22 and January 2, the stock declined more than 10%, closing at $438.07 last Friday.
After climbing 3% on Monday, Tesla shares plunged over 4% in early trading on Tuesday, wiping out the previous gains.
As of press time, the stock was trading 5% lower at $428.80.
Nvidia launched on Monday Alpamayo-R1, which it calls “the world’s first thinking, reasoning, autonomous vehicle AI” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The visual-language-action (VLA) model is available open-source, as they aim to speed up the development of autonomous vehicles.
Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang pointed out that while Tesla and Waymo have strong proprietary self-driving systems, Nvidia is “doing it for everyone else.”
By open-sourcing the technology, Nvidia allows any automaker to deploy a competitive AV platform.
Last month, the company had already announced that its software could power a self-driving car, as tested with Mercedes-Benz models scheduled for release later this year.
Additionally, the company aims for the newly unveiled suite of AI chips and AV software stack to power a fleet of driverless vehicles as soon as 2027.
According to Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk, the plans are similar to what Tesla is currently doing with its Robotaxi service, which is powered by the Full-Self Driving (FSD) software.
“Well that’s just exactly what Tesla is doing 😂,” the chief executive stated on X, adding that “what they [Nvidia] will find is that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.”
Musk Reacts to Nvidia’s Announcement
A few hours later, Musk added that Nvidia‘s software does not pose “competitive pressure” on the company.
“The actual time from when FSD sort of works to where it is much safer than a human is several years,” he stated, adding that “the legacy car companies won’t design the cameras and AI computers into their cars at scale until several years after that.”
According to Musk, “this is maybe a competitive pressure on Tesla in 5 or 6 years, but probably longer.”
Musk reaffirmed late last year that Tesla was open to licensing its FSD software to other automakers; however, despite having tried to offer them the system, “they don’t want it.”
He had first suggested in 2021 that Tesla might license its FSD software to other automakers, noting that he had discussed the idea with several companies.
Those discussions did not result in any agreements.
Global Deliveries
Last week, Tesla reported 418,227 vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter and a total of 1.63 million EVs in 2025 — marking the second consecutive year of sales decline since 2020.
The figures missed the Wall Street consensus for both the final quarter and the full year.
Despite the launch of more affordable trims for its best-selling models — the Model Y and Model 3 — in both the US and European markets, the company has failed to sustain higher demand in the final quarter of the year, as typically happens in the auto industry.
Besides the US tax deadline, Tesla‘s registrations have also generally continued to decline across key European markets, with Norway posing as an exception, as it is the best-selling brand there.
The decline was driven by slower sales early in the year due to the launch and production switch to the new Model Y, damage to the brand from Elon Musk’s political activities, and increased competition from other automakers.
US Sales
Motor Intelligence estimates published on Monday showed that Tesla sold 48,300 vehicles in its domestic market last month, posting a year over year decline for the third consecutive month.
Sales rebounded in December after hitting their lowest point of the year in November.
In that month, Tesla sold 39,800 vehicles, marking a 23% drop compared to the same period last year and 1,000 units fewer than in October, when sales had already fallen by 30.8% from the previous month.
December figures were still below the three months of the third quarter — which were also the only three months in which Tesla sales were above the previous year.
In 2025, Tesla was only able to outperform monthly results from a year ago in three months — July, August and September, representing the third quarter of the year.
These results were mostly driven by a surge in EV demand ahead of the $7,500 federal tax credit, which has led the company to report its highest quarterly delivery figures yet.
Other automakers also experienced sales declines in the United States over the past three months.
Ford’s EV sales nearly halved compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, while GM reported a 43% drop, despite more stable full-year results.
Geely-backed Polestar saw US sales fall by more than 60% in the fourth quarter, reflecting challenges from global policy changes.
In contrast, domestic EV makers Rivian and Lucid Motors recorded year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter.
In the full year of 2025, Tesla sold 571,454 EVs in the United States, a 10.1% decline from the prior year’s 636,109 units.
