Tesla could become a major player in drone manufacturing: Morgan Stanley
Investing.com -- Tesla may be well-positioned to enter the drone and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) market, according to Morgan Stanley, which sees a potential $9 trillion total addressable market (TAM) in the 'low altitude economy' by 2050.
In a note issued following a Ukrainian drone offensive on Russian air bases, Morgan Stanley called the incident a wake-up call for the strategic role of unmanned systems in the AI era.
'All future wars will be fought with drones,' the analysts wrote, adding that 'China makes more drones in a day than the United States makes in a year.'
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has not disclosed any specific plans related to aviation, but Morgan Stanley said the company has 'a host of relevant skills to be a factor in the Low Altitude Economy from both a commercial and (potentially) non-commercial perspective,' citing Tesla's expertise in battery storage, navigation, autonomy, robotics and manufacturing.
Responding to a question on Tesla's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk warned: 'Any country that cannot manufacture its own drones is doomed to be the vassal state of any country that can. And we can't – America cannot currently manufacture its own drones.'
Morgan Stanley said that if Tesla captures even a fraction of the future eVTOL market, the impact on its valuation could be significant.
'We're coming up with potential preliminary outcomes in the order of $100 per Tesla share on the low-end to approximately $1,000 per Tesla share (or more) on the high end,' wrote the bank.
The firm added, 'We don't think investors are prepared for the scope of this revolution,' noting that a single eVTOL could generate the revenue equivalent of 15 ride-share vehicles.
Related articles
Tesla could become a major player in drone manufacturing: Morgan Stanley
Wells Fargo jumps after Fed lifts long-standing asset cap
PetroChina to shut down final crude unit at major north China refinery
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
The AI Paradox: When More AI Means Less Impact
Young business man with his face passing through the screen of a laptop on binary code background AI is in the news every day. On the one hand, this highlights the vertiginous speed at which the field is developing. On the other, it creates a sense saturation and angst that makes business organizations either drop the subject altogether or go at it full throttle without much discernment. Both approaches will lead to major misses in the inevitable AI-fication of business. In this article, I'll explore what happens when a business goes down the AI rabbit hole without a clear business objective and a solid grasp of the available alternatives. If you have attended any AI conference lately, chances are that, by the end, you thought your business was dangerously behind. Many of these events, even if not on purpose, can leave you with the feeling that you need to deploy AI everywhere and automate everything to catch up. If you've succumbed to this temptation, you most likely found out that is not the right move. Two years into the generative AI revolution, a counterintuitive truth is emerging from boardrooms to factory floors. Companies pursuing 100% AI automation are often seeing diminished returns, while those treating AI as one element in a broader, human-centered workflow are capturing both cost savings and competitive advantages. The obvious truth is already revealing itself: AI is just one more technology at our disposal, and just like every other new technology, everyone is trying to gain first-move advantage, which inevitably creates chaos. Those who see through and beyond said chaos are building the foundations of a successful AI-assisted business. The numbers tell a story that contradicts the automation evangelists. Three in four workers say AI tools have decreased their productivity and added to their workload, according to a recent UpWork survey of 2,500 respondents across four countries. Workers report spending more time reviewing AI-generated content and learning tool complexities than the time these tools supposedly save. Even more revealing: while 85% of company leaders are pushing workers to use AI, nearly half of employees using AI admitted they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect. This disconnect isn't just corporate misalignment—it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how AI creates value. The companies winning the AI game aren't those deploying the most algorithms. They're the ones who understand that intelligent automation shouldn't rely on AI alone. Instead, successful organizations are orchestrating AI within broader process frameworks where human expertise guides strategic decisions while AI handles specific, well-defined tasks. A good AI strategy always revolves around domain experts, not the other way around. Consider how The New York Times approached AI integration. Rather than replacing journalists with AI, the newspaper introduced AI tools for editing copy, summarizing information, and generating promotional content, while maintaining strict guidelines that AI cannot draft full articles or significantly alter journalism. This measured approach preserves editorial integrity while amplifying human capabilities. AI should be integrated strategically and operationally into entire processes, not deployed as isolated solutions to be indiscriminately exploited hoping for magic. Research shows that 60% of business and IT leaders use over 26 systems in their automation efforts, and 42% cite lack of integration as a major digital transformation hurdle. The most effective AI implementations focus on task-specific applications rather than general automation. Task-specific models offer highly specialized solutions for targeted problems, making them more efficient and cost-effective than general-purpose alternatives. Harvard Business School research involving 750 Boston Consulting Group consultants revealed this precision matters enormously. While consultants using AI completed certain tasks 40% faster with higher quality, they were 19 percentage points less likely to produce correct answers on complex tasks requiring nuanced judgment. This 'jagged technological frontier' demands that organizations implement methodical test-and-learn approaches rather than wholesale AI adoption. Harvard Business Review research confirms that AI notoriously fails at capturing intangible human factors essential for real-world decision-making—ethical considerations, moral judgments, and contextual nuances that guide business success. The companies thriving in 2025 aren't choosing between humans and machines. They're building hybrid systems where AI automation is balanced with human interaction to maintain stakeholder trust and capture value that neither could achieve alone. The mantra, 'AI will replace your job,' seems to consistently reveal a timeless truth: everything that should be automated will be automated, not everything than can be automated will. The Path Forward The AI paradox isn't a failure of technology—it's a lesson in implementation strategy. Organizations that resist the allure of complete automation and instead focus on thoughtful integration, task-specific deployment, and human-AI collaboration aren't just avoiding the productivity trap. They're building sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time. The question isn't whether your organization should use AI. It's whether you'll fall into the 'more AI' trap or master the art of 'smarter AI'—where less automation actually delivers more impact.
Miami Herald
16 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Has Russia Moved Strategic Aviation Nearer to Alaska? What We Know
Russia has likely not moved one of its nuclear-capable heavy bombers further from Ukraine, analysts and satellite imagery indicate after reports suggested Moscow had transferred one of its hefty Tu-160 supersonic aircraft closer to Alaska following extensive Ukrainian strikes on Russian airfields. Ukraine said it hit 41 of Russia's expensive, hard-to-replace warplanes on June 1 in a meticulously timed operation across three different time zones using drones smuggled over the border. Ukrainian outlet Defence Express reported on Thursday that Russia had relocated one of its Tu-160 strategic bombers to the Anadyr airfield in Russia's far eastern Chukotka region, citing satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel satellites on June 4. Satellite imagery provided to Newsweek by Planet Labs, captured of Anadyr on May 26 - prior to the audacious Ukrainian strikes - showed three aircraft lined up on the main apron. The image, while low quality, does not indicate the presence of the distinctively shaped Tu-160s, analysts said. A separate image from June 3 showed four aircraft on the main apron of the base, but none of the aircraft - including the one that appeared since May 26 - appear to be the world's heaviest operational bomber, experts told Newsweek. It is fairly standard practice for militaries to move aircraft around and may not indicate anything more than a "sensible approach to looking after your aircraft," said Frank Ledwidge, a senior lecturer in Law and War Studies at Portsmouth University in the U.K. and a former British military intelligence officer. Under the New START Treaty limiting nuclear weapons, strategic bombers have to be kept out in the open, Ledwidge added. Russia will likely move around its aircraft more following the success of the Ukrainian strikes, retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, a former senior commander in the U.K.'s Royal Air Force, told Newsweek. Kyiv said after the strikes, it had targeted at least one of Moscow's scarce A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft and several long-range, nuclear-capable bombers across four air bases thousands of miles apart. Russia reported drone assaults on five bases, including strikes on a long-range aviation hub in the country's far east that Kyiv did not publicly acknowledge. One Ukrainian official said 13 aircraft had been destroyed. Satellite imagery from the Siberian air base of Belaya and Olenya, an Arctic base in Murmansk-just two of the targeted bases-showed several destroyed Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers. Ukraine said it had also attacked the Ivanovo airbase northeast of Moscow and Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region. The Belaya airfield sits just shy of 3,000 miles from Ukraine. At least six Russian Tu-95MS and four Tu-22M3 aircraft appear to have been destroyed, Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow for airpower at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said in recent days. While unlikely to hack away at how many aerial assaults Russia can mount on Ukraine, the simultaneous strikes known as Operation Spiderweb caused roughly $7 billion in damage, according to Kyiv, and exposed how vulnerable airfields and their aircraft now are to drone strikes while landing an embarrassing slap on the Kremlin. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "very strongly" insisted he would retaliate for the strikes. The main base in Russian territory where the operation was masterminded was "directly next to" an FSB regional headquarters, Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said as he praised the "brilliant" operation. Russia's FSB domestic security agency is the main descendant of the Soviet-era KGB. Russia used a Tu-160 in intensive overnight missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said on Friday. Moscow fired more than 400 attack drones, six ballistic missiles, 38 cruise missiles and one anti-radar air-to-surface missile at the war-torn country overnight, according to the air force. Ukraine's military separately said on Friday it had hit Dyagilevo in fresh strikes and the Engels long-range aviation hub in the Saratov region. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email. Related Articles G7 Invite for Modi Signals India's Growing Weight for Democratic AllianceRussia Offers Political Asylum to Elon Musk Over Trump FeudRussia Reacts to Trump's 'Young Children Fighting' CommentUS Demands 'End' to Military Cooperation Between North Korea and Russia 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This ‘dual-use' electric tractor can sow fields and run guns
A Spanish startup called Voltrac says it is building a new breed of smart tractor—one that could sow fields by day and run weapons to soldiers by night. And while the Hot Wheels-looking, fully electric tractor is currently remote-controlled, Voltrac is working to make its next version fully autonomous. This 'dual-use' tractor, first spotted by The Next Web, reportedly weighs 3.5 tons—roughly the size of a young African elephant—and has a carrying capacity of nearly 8,900 pounds. It can reach a top speed of around 24 miles per hour and operate for anywhere between 8 to 20 hours, thanks to two large 200kW batteries. The Voltrac comes equipped with a suite of sensors and onboard cameras that can be used to monitor a crop field—or a mine-filled battlefield. Currently, the Voltrac is remotely controlled by a human operator who steers the machine through a first-person point of view. The company told TNW it's currently awaiting EU regulatory approval to allow the machine to operate fully autonomously. In theory, they say, one remote operator, be it a farmer or a military commander, could oversee multiple shiny steel tractors working simultaneously. Voltrac says its low-profile tractor uses distributed electric propulsion via per-wheel motors, which it claims helps eliminate around 70 percent of traditional tractor components. That increased efficiency, they say, should reduce annual maintenance and operating costs for the owner by roughly 30 percent. Voltrac did not immediately respond to Popular Science's request for comment. As a farming tool, the Voltrac features a hitch that can be used to attach common tools of the trade like plows, mowers, or cutters. It also supports a large, attachable flatbed add-on for transporting containers full of tools and gear. The machine's cameras can be used to conduct what the company calls 'live experiments' on crops. The tractor could, for example, treat different parts of a field in slightly different ways to observe how plants respond to various treatments. For military applications, the tractor could be used to remotely inspect areas for signs of mines, improvised explosive devices, or other unexploded ordnance. Its hefty carrying capacity means it could also be deployed to troops in difficult or dangerous-to-reach areas. Voltrac told TNW it is in early talks with several NATO departments regarding the tractor's potential use in military scenarios. 'It's built for tough terrain, and it doesn't risk human life. It can do the same job whether it's hauling crops or carrying ammo,' Voltrac's co-founder and CTO Francisco Infante Aguirre said in a recent interview with TNW. Using farming equipment for war might sound odd, but it's not a totally novel idea. In Ukraine, farmers are already using basic tractors retrofitted with abandoned Russian tank parts to scour crop fields for unexploded mines. Others have reportedly built DIY radio-controlled tractors to clear mines and debris from contested farmland. Major militaries around the world—such as those of the US and France,—have already demonstrated the use of remote-controlled robots, similar in shape and size to the Voltrac, to aid in resupply efforts. Voltrac likely still has hurdles to clear before reaching that stage. The company is still raising money and says it plans to start shipping its first tractors in early 2026.
