Lucid Is on Sale. Could This Be the Buy That Sets You Up for Life?

Something exciting is happening with EV stocks right now: They are transforming into AI stocks.

Consider Tesla. The company has posted negative growth in its automobile business for several years in a row. Yet the company's valuation has soared to $1.2 trillion thanks to its massive AI investments, which will help it target multitrillion-dollar growth opportunities involving self-driving cars and robotaxis.

While its share price hasn't reflected its ambitions, the same is true for Rivian Automotive. In December, Rivian held its first "AI Day." The company's AI investments are now expected to accelerate so rapidly that it recently lowered its 2027 profit guidance.

But what about Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID)? The EV maker has announced its own AI and autonomy initiatives, yet shares have continued to sink. Lucid's stock has nearly been cut in half so far in 2026, with a market capitalization that now hovers just above $2 billion -- roughly 90% smaller than Rivian and more than 99% smaller than Tesla.

Is Lucid stock ready to stage a huge rebound? Potentially, but there's one major risk that could sink the story.

Lucid faces one key risk to growth

Last October, Lucid claimed that it would be delivering "one of the world's first consumer-owned Level 4 autonomous vehicles ... enabling true 'eyes-off, hands-off, mind-off' capabilities." In addition, the company announced that it will be building "a unified AI factory to build smart factories and transform their enterprise leveraging Nvidia Omniverse and Nvidia AI Enterprise software libraries."

There were a lot of buzzwords in the announcement. In short, Lucid wanted to let the market know that it was going all-in on AI. That strategy, after all, worked fairly well for Tesla and a host of other companies that pivoted hard toward AI. There's just one problem with Lucid's plan: access to capital.

Image source: Lucid Group.

Lucid has several reliable capital partners, chief of which is Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has been Lucid's majority owner since 2019 and poured billions of dollars into the business over the years.

Pursuing an AI-first strategy will be capital-intensive. If Tesla has yet to scale production of a consumer-grade fully autonomous vehicle despite having unparalleled access to cheap capital, how can Lucid -- with an unprofitable core business and less than $1 billion in cash on hand -- hope to do so without raising huge amounts of new capital at a record-low stock price?

Lucid may achieve a unique breakthrough that sends its stock price soaring. But in reality, I expect cash burn to remain elevated, with share dilution accelerating to the point that it will be difficult to overcome that shareholder drag with positive catalysts like rising revenues or improved gross margins.

In short, Lucid stock is cheap for a reason. And shareholders should view the company more like a lottery ticket at this point versus a traditional investment.

Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.