Palantir Tesla Drones Morgan Stanley Analyst

Elon Musk and Alex Karp (Bill Clark/Getty Images)

Maybe Tesla should be Palantir

A Morgan Stanley analyst has some suggestions for new businesses for the automaker struggling with a pronounced sales drop.

Matt Phillips

6/5/25 12:13PM

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Palantir CEO Alex Karp is probably blushing.

Meta has recently begun to dabble in the world of defense technology, a clear indication that Palantir’s surging share price is getting the attention of Silicon Valley’s elite.

And on Thursday, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas — a longtime Tesla watcher — seemed to be suggesting that Tesla CEO Elon Musk try to mimic Palantir, writing that the EV company could expand its product portfolio to include some sort of autonomous drone division. (Palantir has been involved in developing AI software for drones.)

The total addressable market of electronic vertical take-off and landing drones could hit $9 trillion by 2050, “far bigger than cars,” Jonas said.

Of the opportunity, he writes:

“TSLA’s skills transferability. Manufacturing, material science, navigation/autonomy, electric motor development, battery storage, supporting infrastructure and robotics… Tesla has a host of relevant skills to be a factor in the Low Altitude Economy from both a commercial and (potentially) non-commercial perspective.
Starlink the ‘connective tissue’ in the Low Altitude Economy. Anyone following the situation in Ukraine/Russia over the past 3 years understands the deterministic role of low latency, reliable, resilient/redundant satellite communications in the battlefield to conduct basic to sophisticated maneuvers and operations.
The DOGE Angle. While Elon Musk is no longer working directly with team DOGE, we suggest investors keep a watchful eye on incremental developments on actions and ‘suggestions’ that could prove influential to the reformation of US transportation.”

While Jones concedes that he has no information indicating that Tesla is pursuing an aviation division, his note is a reflection of the attention earned by Palantir, which sells a range of AI, intelligence, and data management software to both government and corporate clients. It’s the performance, stupid.

After last year’s 340% run-up, making it the top stock in the S&P 500, Palantir is up another 74% in 2025, neck and neck with NRG Energy for this year’s biggest gainer among the blue chips — thanks, in part, to a large and loyal base of retail shareholders.

But whether or not a Tesla turn to defense technology would connect with the market is an open question.

As we’ve written before, part of the reason that Palantir shares have exploded is the perception that the company’s connections with the Trump administration — influential right-wing political donor Peter Thiel is a cofounder and the largest individual shareholder in the company, with a stake worth roughly $9 billion — will translate to additional government contracts. The federal government is Palantir’s biggest single customer.

And while Musk has been arguably closer to President Trump himself in the early going of Trump 2.0, that relationship seems to be going off the rails quickly.

Intel massive stock move after Q1 earnings report

Intel soars by the most in decades after crushing Q1 earnings

A pretty good day.

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The chip rally is getting so intense, even Qualcomm gets to surge

If you’re a good host, even the last person who shows up to the party gets to have a good time.

On that note, beleaguered Qualcomm — the worst-performing member of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index this year — is staging a furious rally on Friday, with the industry poised to deliver its 18th consecutive session of gains.

Intel’s earnings are buoying the semi space broadly on Friday, and Qualcomm isn’t being left out. Options activity is also elevated and tilted toward the bull side. As of 9:56 a.m. ET, more than 48,000 calls have changed hands, roughly double its full-day average for the past 20 sessions. Its put/call ratio of 0.17 is well below the 20-day average of 0.44.

The San Diego-based firm has been negative in 2026 since the seventh session of the year, and even with today’s advance, remains mired in the red year to date. The stock cratered after reporting Q1 earnings in early February because its poor Q2 guidance seemingly confirmed fears that smartphone sales would come under pressure from rising memory chip prices and limited availability. Smartphone chips are still Qualcomm’s primary business, accounting for nearly two-thirds of revenues in its most recent quarter, and memory chip sellers appear to be incentivized to meet demand from major AI customers first.

Qualcomm reports Q2 earnings next Wednesday, but that release will likely be overshadowed by the four Magnificent 7 hyperscalers releasing results after the close.

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Analysts applaud Intel’s massive Q1

Intel’s massive Q1 numbers and mega Q2 guidance shocked Wall Street and sent shares across the semiconductor industry higher Friday morning.

Here’s how Wall Street analysts are characterizing the far better-than-expected results:

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral,” price target: $77): “Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.”

Barclays (rating: “equal weight,” price target: $65): “The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.”

HSBC (rating: “buy,” price target: $100): “The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.”

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform,” price target: $65): “Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.”

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight,” price target: $45): “EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.”

Intel crushes Q1 earnings expectations, forecasts strong Q2 revenue, shares soar

DA Davidson (rating: “neutral,” price target: $77): “Strong 1Q26 earnings that were highlighted by a significant beat on top and bottom-line expectations. Results in the quarter reflect the growing importance of CPUs and advanced packing. We view the recent Terafab announcement as a proof point that Intel is likely to see continued customer acquisition as the United States demands more domestic semiconductor manufacturing.”

Barclays (rating: “equal weight,” price target: $65): “The sizable top-line and gross margin beat caught us by surprise as our expectation was for tight supply in Q1. Mgmt expects the supply situation to improve through the year and for yields to improve, which should support growth in server.”

HSBC (rating: “buy,” price target: $100): “The market has been
underestimating Intel’s CPU average selling price upside as well as its ability to re-allocate its own foundry capacity to unlock further CPU unit growth, considering a CPU shortage environment that we expect to persist until 2027e.”

Bernstein: (rating: “market perform,” price target: $65): “Server strength seems demonstrably real, client seems to be holding up for now, commentary around 18A/14A was positive, and there remains hopes for forthcoming packaging announcements. That being said, there were quite a few nuggets for the bears as well; namely while 18A yields are seemingly running better than expected they apparently remain underwhelming, and ASP increases are being met by cost inflation.”

JPMorgan (rating: “underweight,” price target: $45): “EPS quality issues, 2H gross margin headwinds, structural OpEx creep, and a Foundry breakeven timeline that is likely to push beyond YE CY27 keep us at UW even as we raise estimates.”

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TSMC surges as Taiwan eases single-stock investment limits for funds

TSMC’s ADRs jumped 3% in premarket trading on Friday after the island’s financial regulator announced plans to ease limits on funds’ allocations to single funds.

Previously, active fund managers were limited to allocating up to a maximum of 10% of their net assets into any one company. Under the revised framework, local equity funds and active exchange-traded funds that solely invest in Taiwanese stocks can allocate up to 25% of their assets in any listed company if it has a weighting above 10% in the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The new rule, announced Thursday, will come into effect after the regulator issues an order on Friday. Relaxing the long-standing rule will mean fewer restrictions on local money managers taking full advantage of TSMC’s skyrocketing share price. TSMC, now Asia’s largest company by market cap, has seen its share price surge 150% in the past year — adding more to its gains in the last few days after crushing estimates in its first-quarter results.

TSMC is currently the only company that meets that 10% criterion, holding some 44% weight in Taiwan’s benchmark index, though the latest change also moved other large-cap Taiwanese stocks higher on Friday.