Elon Musk Claims Warren Buffett Lost Out Not Investing in Tesla — Here’s How Much You Could Have Made
Written by
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
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Legendary investor Warren Buffett’s steadfast motto of holding steady and being patient as being key to investing has inspired many over the years and has led the Oracle of Omaha to amass a $105 billion net worth.
Yet, Elon Musk recently tweeted that Buffet should have invested in his electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla.
Musk, replying to a tweet showing the growth and evolution of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio since 1994, tweeted on March 16: “Or he could have just invested in Tesla at $200M market cap when he had the opportunity to do so.”
Musk’s comments follow those he made in February, replying to one user asking where Berkshire should unload some of the cash it’s sitting on.
“Starts with a T …” Musk replied.
“Munger could’ve invested in Tesla at ~$200M valuation when I had lunch with him in late 2008,” he added, reiterating a statement he tweeted in February 202, when he wrote: “I was at a lunch with Munger in 2009 where he told the whole table all the ways Tesla would fail. Made me quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those reasons & that we would probably die, but it was worth trying anyway.”
It’s important to note that Buffett was an early investor in Tesla competitor Chinese EV company BYD. While Berkshire Hathaway unloaded some of its shares in the company last month, selling 4.235 million of the Hong Kong-listed shares. It still owns 11.8% of the shares — down from 12.2% in January — according to a regulatory filing.
Bloomberg reported that the Chinese company’s profit more than quintupled last year after it sold a record number of electric vehicles and increased its battle with Tesla for market share.
Meanwhile, Tesla will be reporting its first-quarter delivery data later this week, which analysts anticipate to be good.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said he maintains an Outperform outlook on Tesla and a $225 price target, according to a clients’ note.
According to Ives, Chinese domestic players such as BYD, Nio, and Xpeng remain very formidable competitors but he believes that market share shifts are now favoring Tesla in China.
“The macro remains uncertain and a recession could likely be on the doorstep, however, Tesla is now positioned well with its price points with demand outstripping supply so far in 2023,” Ives wrote in the note.
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