When Tesla, back in July, posted its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, it appeared that the electric car company had cleared the final hurdle for addition to the S&P 500 index.

There was, however, no announcement at the time of an addition. But now, after a fifth straight profitable quarter, Tesla is in.

“Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 effective prior to the open of trading on Monday, December 21 to coincide with the December quarterly rebalance,” the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Monday.  “Due to the large size of the addition, S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking feedback through a consultation to the investment community to determine if Tesla should be added all at once on the rebalance effective date or in two separate tranches ending on the rebalance effective date. Tesla will replace a S&P 500 company to be named in a separate press release closer to the rebalance effective date.”

Reuters said that Tesla, at its current value of over $400 billion, is larger than 95 percent of the companies currently listed in the S&P 500. Earlier this year, Tesla became the world’s most valuable car company.

Tesla’s stock surged on the news, jumping more than 9 percent in the early hours of trading Tuesday, as high as $444 a share, after opening at $93.81 a share at the start of 2020. Tesla’s market cap is now about $422 billion.

Also this week, Ars Technica reported that a part of one of Tesla’s infotainment systems, the 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory chip, is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after more than five hundred customer complaints.

Meanwhile, Electrek reported this week that Tesla has recently gone on a “hiring spree,” bringing aboard one thousand new sales and delivery people in the last two months, all in North America. The hires are meant to carry out what’s expected to be Tesla’s record number of vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter. The company, however, has focused mostly on hiring part-time employees.

Even in the pandemic, per that report, Tesla appears to have backed off of its announced plans last year to close most of its retail locations and has actually added dozens of stores and service centers in that time.

In the third quarter, Tesla posted revenue of over $8 billion, and a profit of $809 million, with the company attributed its strong performance to “substantial growth in vehicle deliveries as well as growth in other parts of the business.” The company had announced separately, earlier in October, that it had delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter of 2020.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.