DETROIT – As Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off his dance moves Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the Model Y in China, no such festivities were likely occurring in Detroit.

Shares of Tesla have roughly doubled in the last six months, giving the Silicon Valley automaker a market capitalization of roughly $84.5 billion — about $2 billion shy of General Motors and Ford Motor, combined.

That's despite record profits and significant efforts by the Detroit automakers in recent years to restructure operations and cut costs, while Musk has unprofitably danced his way into Wall Street's good graces.

Tesla's stock rose 3.88% on Tuesday after Musk's presentation at the company's new Gigafactory in Shanghai. That compares to GM at $35.15 per share with a market cap of roughly $50.2 billion and Ford at about $9.25 per share with a market cap of about $36.7 billion as of Tuesday night.

"They caught their competition in the U.S. just dead flat-footed," Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital, said Tuesday regarding Tesla on CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "I don't think it's quite going to be the same in China … but nonetheless, terrific day for Tesla and well-deserved because they've innovated with a product that many of us love."