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Shares of Tesla rallied Monday after the electric vehicle makers CEO, Elon Musk, paid a surprise visit to Beijing over the weekend and reportedly won tentative approval for its driver-assistance software.

Muskmet with a senior government official in the Chinese capital Sunday, just as the nations carmakers are showing off theirlatest electric vehicle modelsat the Beijing auto show.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Chinese officials told Tesla that Beijing has tentatively approved the automakers plan to launch its Full Self-Driving, or FSD, software feature in the country.

Although its called FSD, the software still requires human supervision. On Friday, the U.S. governments auto safety agency said it is investigating whetherlast years recallof Teslas Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road. Tesla has reported 20 more crashes involving Autopilot since the recall, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At the close of trading, shares of Austin, Texas-based Tesla surged more than 15%its biggest one-day jump since February 2020adding roughly $82 billion to its market capitalization. For the year to date, shares are still down 22%.

Tesla has been contending with its stock slide and slowing production. Last week, the company said itsfirst-quarter net incomeplunged by more than half, but it touted a newer, cheaper car and a fully autonomous robotaxi as catalysts for future growth.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the news about Chinas FSD approval a home run for Tesla and maintained his Outperform rating on the stock.

We note Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai since 2021 as required by regulators in Beijing, Ives wrote in a note to investors. If Musk is able to obtain approval from Beijing to transfer data collected in China abroad this would be pivotal around the acceleration of training its algorithms for its autonomous technology globally.

Originally posted here:

Tesla gains roughly $82 billion on 15% stock surge as top analyst sees 'home run' deal for Elon Musk in China - Fortune