In a remarkable turn of events, Tesla has seen its stock soar to unprecedented heights over the past week, with several major Wall Street investment banks raising their price targets for the electric vehicle giantFor the first time in three years, Tesla's stock reached an all-time high, pushing CEO Elon Musk's net worth to new record levels and making him the first person in history to surpass a staggering $400 billion in personal wealth.

On December 11, during the midday trading hours in the U.S., Tesla's share price demonstrated a significant upward trajectory, hitting a peak of $424.88—an impressive increase of about 6% for the day, marking an intraday record highThe stock ultimately closed the day with a gain of over 5.9%, settling at $424.77. This marked the sixth consecutive trading day of gains, breaking the previous closing record set on November 4, 2021.

Goldman Sachs played a key role in this bullish sentiment, as analyst Mark Delaney raised Tesla's price target by 38%, increasing it from $250 to $345, while maintaining a neutral rating

Despite the new target being considerably lower than Tuesday's close when Tesla topped the $400 mark, Delaney's report highlighted optimism around Tesla's advancements in autonomous driving and robotics technologies and their potential positive effects on stock performance.

In his latest analysis, Delaney stated that Tesla leads in both platform and drivetrain technology, as well as in wider clean transportation sectors, including electric vehicles, energy storage, software, and charging infrastructureNevertheless, Goldman Sachs also indicated that Tesla might face challenges in the short to medium term regarding its core automotive business due to a decline in global electric vehicle demand and pricing pressures.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs believe that given the growing market interest in potential beneficiaries of artificial intelligence (AI), Tesla shares could maintain a relatively high price-to-earnings ratio that reflects long-term opportunities associated with its full self-driving (FSD) technology and robotics

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This perspective has been echoed across several other institutions on Wall Street, which have also adjusted their price targets for Tesla upward.

For instance, Morgan Stanley raised its target from $310 to $400—an increase of 29%—and retained an overweight ratingCantor Fitzgerald went even further, elevating its target by an impressive 43% to $365 while maintaining a neutral stanceMorgan Stanley analysts specifically pointed out that strong sales momentum is likely to help Tesla set a new record for Q4 sales in China.

Moreover, a visit to Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, by Bank of America analyst John Murph led him to reaffirm a positive outlook, raising his target by 14.3% to $400. His assessment, which places it at the higher end of Wall Street predictions, reflects confidence in Tesla's growth prospects for next year and beyondMurph emphasized that advancements in Tesla’s autonomous driving and robotics sectors would spearhead this growth, with the FSD technology seeing increased adoption

Additionally, he expected accelerated development of Tesla's Optimus project, coupled with new models to expand the company's total addressable market.

Interestingly, a notable shift occurred when long-time Tesla skeptic Craig Irwin of Roth MKM revved up his perspective, moving from a neutral to a buy rating and raising the price target by an astonishing 347%—from $85 to $380. Irwin observed the absence of negative catalysts for Tesla, stating that many positive ones were instead in play, suggesting an upward rather than downward trend in stock performance.

As Tesla's share price escalated, so too did Elon Musk's personal fortuneOn that Wednesday, Bloomberg's Billionaires Index revealed that Musk’s net worth had eclipsed $400 billion for the first time, breaking records for personal wealth globally.

Musk's wealth surged, driven by soaring valuations of his companies

Since November 5, as of the Wednesday close, Tesla's stock has experienced a cumulative rise of approximately 69%, adding over $556 billion to its market cap in just five weeks.

Analysts have begun to ponder the potential impact Musk’s personal relationships might have on future U.Sgovernment policy makingMusk himself hinted at this during a conference call regarding Tesla’s Q3 earnings when he expressed his intention to leverage his influence to develop a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles, which is currently managed at the state level.

On November 6, Dan Ives, an analyst at investment firm Wedbush and a self-proclaimed "die-hard fan" of Musk, candidly voiced his bullish sentiment on Musk and Tesla, declaring that the “biggest beneficiaries will be Tesla/Musk.” This encapsulates the growing camaraderie between institutional investors and Musk’s strategic vision.

Wedbush further reflected this optimism by raising Tesla’s price target from $300 to $400. Documents submitted to regulatory bodies have shown that Musk holds over 411 million shares of Tesla stock and approximately 304 million performance-based stock options, which account for about three-quarters of his personal wealth