I know it sucks, but ELon also has SpaceX, Twitter, xAI and oddballs like neurolink and boring company that would still keep him outrageously wealthy if Tesla collapses.
Also Tesla won't collapse because it's investors are the most brain damaged investors, and frankly their self-fulfilling prophecy has kept them repeatedly buying any dip back up. It's been extremely profitable to be a mindless Tesla investor.
I'd really expect that he is actually at a loss on all of those except for SpaceX which has a clear path towards being cash flow positive if it isn't already
You don't have to make money to be worth an astronomical amount. HN should know this better than anywhere.
I hate "fictitious" valuations as much as the next guy, but at the end of the day it's what people are willing to pay for equity that determines value, not what it's books look like.
Tesla technically existed on paper before Musk, but they didn’t even have a working prototype, and their facility was a home garage. In all practical terms he founded Tesla as well.
Twitter he bought obviously, which is why I didn’t mention it.
"No, Elon Musk did not found Tesla; the company was originally founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Musk became involved later as an investor and eventually took on leadership roles, including CEO, after a legal battle over the title of founder."
He hasn't "given" society anything, we pay these companies for their services (often with taxpayer dollars!)
It doesn't suck that SpaceX or Tesla exists. It sucks that the person who has profited most from those entities is using their power to destroy government agencies that oversee his companies, and more broadly, to constantly lie and try to destroy the federal government.
> He hasn't "given" society anything, we pay these companies for their services
He’s given society new products and services that didn’t exist before, the option to purchase from those companies, and the tax revenue from those companies (to the tune of hundreds of billions)
If Tesla crashed, so would Elon’s power.