Forget the panel gaps and the stainless steel fingerprints. The real story of late 2025 isn't the metal—it's the mind inside it.
A series of viral, unscripted moments has started circulating — the kind that even Tesla engineers reportedly didn’t expect. In a widely circulated clip from late 2024, a Cybertruck running FSD v12 defied its old programming logic.
Facing an oncoming fire truck with flashing lights—a scenario that historically required hard-coded "if/then" rules—the vehicle didn't just stop. It reportedly pulled over to the shoulder in a fluid, human-like maneuver to clear the path.
This decision was made not by C++ code, but by a neural net "reasoning" in real-time.
Other reports from the "off-road" community show Cybertrucks engaging "Trail Assist" in deep snow and chaotic terrain, navigating unmarked paths purely on visual intuition. For anyone trying to understand where the next wave of AI value is forming, this is the first real glimpse of a system crossing into true improvisation — the line Tesla has tried to reach for almost a decade.
The "ChatGPT Moment" for Cars
Why does this matter for your portfolio? Because Tesla has officially abandoned the "Code Era."
The Shift: FSD v12 represents the deletion of over 300,000 lines of C++ code.
The Replacement: End-to-End Neural Networks.
Think of it this way: Previous self-driving systems were like "DOS"—rigid, rule-based, and fragile. v12 is LLM (Large Language Model) logic applied to driving.
Just as ChatGPT learned to write poetry by reading the internet, FSD v12 has learned to drive by watching millions of hours of video. It doesn't have a line of code that says "stop at red light." It has a neural pathway that understands stopping is what humans do when the light is red.
The Financial Implication
This is the moment where self-driving stops being scripted and starts being learned. If the car can improvise, the cost of solving "edge cases" (the last 1% of driving difficulty) plummets, while the value of the software skyrockets. And as always, when the software leaps forward, the hardware story shifts with it.
The "Hardware" Reality: Investing Upstream
While Wall Street argues over Tesla's stock price, smart money is looking at the hardware backbone required to run these massive neural nets. The demand for "inference compute" is creating a massive supplier vacuum.
The "AI5" Chip Opportunity: Leaks confirm Tesla's next-gen "AI5" (HW5) computer is targeting 2,000–2,500 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second)—a 5x leap over the current HW4.
The Dual-Foundry Strategy: To feed this beast, Tesla has reportedly split orders between TSMC and Samsung, securing a massive supply chain moat.
The "Eyes" of the Beast: The silent winner here is Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Reports indicate they have overtaken LG Innotek to become Tesla’s dominant camera supplier (securing ~80% of orders), providing the ultra-high-definition 5MP "eyes" crucial for v12's vision-only system.
Investment Takeaway: The next winners aren’t fighting for EV market share — they’re quietly building the components every AI-driven vehicle will depend on.
Production Ramp: The "Dead" Truck Rises
Skeptics called the Cybertruck a niche toy. They said demand had evaporated by mid-2025. They were wrong.
Q3 2025 data dropped a hammer on the bearish narrative. Tesla posted a record quarter with over 497,000 deliveries globally. More critically, the "Other Models" category (which hides the Cybertruck numbers) saw a massive 53% surge quarter-over-quarter.
After a dip in Q2 that fueled "demand cliff" rumors, the Cybertruck has found its second wind, likely driven by the rollout of lower-priced trims and the viral success of its FSD capabilities.
The ramp is not linear; it is exponential. We are witnessing the transition from "early adopter novelty" to "mass-market utility" as the software finally catches up to the hardware.
The Verdict
The hardware is stabilizing. The software has woken up. The skeptics are looking at 2024 charts while 2025 breaks records. The next phase won’t be led by automakers at all — but by the companies supplying the intelligence those automakers now depend on.
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Written by Deniss Slinkins
Global Financial Journal
