According to recent SEC filings, the Thiel Macro fund sold 76% of its Tesla position in late December and redirected the proceeds into Apple, a move that reduced Tesla to its largest but now partially trimmed allocation. This reallocation follows Tesla’s market capitalization retreat of approximately 16% from its all-time high and valuation multiples—price-to-sales of 16x and forward P/E near 195x—that Thiel believes no longer correspond to the company’s slowing vehicle deliveries and rising competitive pressures in autonomous driving. By redeploying capital into Apple, Thiel seeks a safer blue-chip hedge while maintaining exposure to Tesla’s upside should its robotaxi network achieve commercial success.

Last week Tesla ceased offering its basic driver-assist package, Autopilot, in both the U.S. and Canada, removing lane-centering and adaptive cruise control as standard features. The company simultaneously announced that after February 14, Full Self-Driving will no longer be purchasable as an $8,000 one-time upgrade, and will instead only be available via a $99 monthly subscription that Elon Musk has signaled will increase over time as software capabilities advance. This strategic shift addresses recent regulatory pressure from California’s DMV over misleading branding and aims to convert more drivers to the higher-margin FSD subscription model, which only about 12% of owners have adopted to date.

On January 22, Tesla launched its first public Robotaxi rides in Austin without in-car safety drivers, marking the transition to unsupervised autonomous operations. These Model Y vehicles operate on a more advanced version of Tesla’s FSD software and are followed by company-monitored chase cars for oversight. The removal of onboard human monitors indicates Tesla has met its internal safety thresholds for limited commercial rollout, a critical milestone ahead of full Cybercab production slated for April. Investors reacted positively, viewing the unsupervised service as tangible proof that Tesla’s robotaxi platform can scale and justify its technology-driven valuation.