Elon Musk and Tesla's Innovation Journey

How many people in today's world have a total wealth of over 100 billion US dollars? The first billionaire was the founder of Amazon, with a wealth of approximately $180 billion. Following closely behind are Victoria Gates and the CEO of LVMH, both of whom have a wealth of around $120 billion. Mark Zuckerberg ranks fourth, with a wealth of around $100 billion that is constantly fluctuating. Another person, as everyone should know, is Elon Musk. This year, tesla's stock price experienced an astonishing surge, once pushing Musk's wealth above the threshold of $100 billion, but it fell again in the following days, so now his wealth has dropped again. Let's take a look at Elon Musk and Tesla's innovation journey together.

Tesla has almost no stock comparable to it, and what is the magic of Tesla? Firstly, Tesla has never made a profit in the decade since its listing in 2010. However, the market value of this unprofitable company has doubled 100 times in the ten years since its listing. Even more surprising is that Tesla's electric vehicle sales in the North American market only account for a few percent of the entire market, but Tesla's market value exceeds that of all other automakers combined. This is truly shocking, especially considering the widespread belief that Tesla is overvalued. Even Elon Musk himself stated on Twitter that he believes Tesla's stock price may be a bit overvalued. Despite this, people are still flocking to buy Tesla's stock, and the stock price continues to soar.

Many people may think that Tesla is just an electric vehicle manufacturer, but in reality, they also have a huge business area, covering areas such as clean energy, battery technology, solar energy, and most importantly, autonomous driving technology. Elon Musk joined Tesla in 2003, so he was not the founder of the company but participated as an investor, investing over $6 million at the time. At that time, he was already a billionaire, but he was not the second generation wealthy, which requires a review of the growth process of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk began to develop an interest in computer programming at a very young age in the 1980s, when computers were not yet widely available. He and his brother wrote some games together, some of which later became very popular. After graduating from undergraduate studies, he was directly admitted to Stanford University to pursue a doctoral degree, but as people imagine, he also dropped out and started his own business. At that time, the internet was just emerging, and his first project was to transfer paper media content to the internet. A few years later, he sold it and earned $300 million, earning himself over $20 million. This is a huge sum of money for a young person who has just graduated from college.

He subsequently discovered new opportunities and began to venture into online trading platforms, establishing an online trading company. This company was later acquired by eBay for $1.6 billion, while Elon Musk himself received $160 million. He continued to start his own business and thus embarked on a path of entrepreneurship, constantly starting and succeeding. Now he has enough wealth to realize his life ideals.

Elon Musk has always had many bold dreams, one of which is to send humans to Mars. This is a very bold goal for a private entrepreneur, as space exploration is usually undertaken by the government and the cost is enormous. But Elon Musk dared to pursue this goal and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in rocket development, founding SpaceX. He is also committed to areas such as clean energy, battery technology, and autonomous driving technology. These are all his current main business areas.

Tesla is now involved in multiple industries, bearing the brunt, of course, in the electric vehicle market. Tesla has always been a leader in the field of electric vehicle manufacturing. Although electric vehicles are not an emerging industry, Elon Musk sees their enormous potential. His key is to increase the range of electric vehicles. Under his leadership, Tesla has carried out extensive research and development work, developing high-performance battery technology to solve the range problems of electric vehicles. However, even with this technology, Tesla still needs to solve the problem of how to reduce production costs and make electric vehicles acceptable to the public. To this end, he proposed a three-step strategy: first produce high-end electric vehicles, and then gradually introduce models with lower prices and larger sales. This strategy has gradually been implemented, allowing Tesla to gradually expand its market share.

Elon Musk and Tesla's innovation journey did not stop in the field of electric vehicles, and Tesla is also actively engaged in the research and development of autonomous driving technology. Although there are still challenges in supervision, Tesla has tested a large number of autonomous vehicles on the road, and Google is also actively developing autonomous technology. The difference is that Tesla has put a large number of autonomous vehicles into actual road use, which gives them valuable data and may lead them in the market.

Tesla also focuses on the energy sector, and Iran began manufacturing solar panels 20 years ago, providing Tesla with an important source of energy. From energy storage to transmission, the entire energy ecosystem is under Tesla's control.

Tesla has always been committed to continuous innovation and research, even conducting research in the field of brain neuroscience. These efforts may be related to autonomous driving technology, providing potential opportunities for future technological advancements. Every field involved in Tesla has enormous potential, but it also brings challenges of high valuation and high volatility.

For Tesla's valuation, this is a complex issue. Due to Tesla's business covering multiple fields, including battery technology, autonomous driving, and energy production, it is difficult to measure using traditional valuation methods. Therefore, valuation assessments on Wall Street often change and are sometimes considered overvalued, and Tesla's future prospects make valuations more complex.

The innovation journey of Elon Musk and Tesla was certainly not smooth sailing, with various issues occurring both internally and externally, including cost calculation errors, team issues, litigation, and more. Elon Musk is not just a technology innovator; he is also an outstanding leader who can lead a team to overcome difficulties. When the company was in financial difficulties, he resolutely decided to invest his remaining $40 million because he firmly believed that Tesla was too important to let it go bankrupt. This not only solved the financial problem but also inspired the entire team.

Tesla is a diversified company with multiple fields of involvement, and Elon Musk's personal traits and leadership skills are also key factors in Tesla's success.

Elon Musk is a controversial yet highly respected entrepreneur. He is considered a genius and is also known by some as a madman. He not only possesses talent in technology, business, and financing but also has a wide range of background knowledge. He dares to pursue cutting-edge ideas, such as launching rockets in the early 21st century. His innovative thinking has great potential for future development and can change the process of civilization. His execution ability is also highly recognized, as he is able to transform his dreams into executable plans and persistently implement them.

Elon Musk is also a charismatic public figure who actively participates in interviews and speeches and showcases his image on various occasions. Although he is busy with his work, he also actively participates in social activities. With his outstanding execution and business insight, he is not only able to independently develop technology but also establish cooperative relationships with enterprises, find investment opportunities, and establish connections with the government to obtain financial support.

Despite Tesla's twists and turns, Elon Musk has always maintained firm confidence and continued to move forward. He not only has strong capabilities in technological innovation but is also able to achieve his vision in business. The story of Elon Musk tells us that as long as we have firm beliefs and unwavering determination, we can achieve impossible tasks.

Disclaimer: This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended as (and should not be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by EBC or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.