Musk Expects Tesla To Pass Apple, Aramco in Five Years
Tesla could become the world’s most valuable company, surpassing Apple and Aramco combined, as long as it “executes well” over the next five years.
This is a prediction that its chief executive, Elon Musk, first made on Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call but confirmed at the end of the year.
“I stand by my prediction that, if Tesla executes extremely well over the next 5 years, that the long term value could exceed Apple and Aramco combined,” Musk wrote in an X post.
Apple’s market capitalization is $2.99 trillion at the moment, with Aramco’s at $2.13 trillion. Tesla’s current market cap, on the other hand, is $778.6 billion. The stock has grown significantly over the past year, however.
At the start of January 2023, Tesla traded at some $108 per share. It ended the year at close to $250 per share.
This is not to say that the year has been without challenges. Like all EV makers, Tesla has suffered a decline in sales, which prompted the company to cut prices. The environment seems to be especially challenging in China, which is a key market for the carmaker and also an intensely competitive one.
Even so, Tesla is expected to report record sales for the last quarter of the year, although they will likely fall short of Musk’s own plans for 2023 sales. Per an LSEG poll reported by Reuters, Tesla’s 2023 sales will likely stand at 1.82 million cars.
This would be a 37% increase on the year. Of this total, 473,000 cars are seen getting sold in the final quarter of the year. Per plans, Tesla should have hit sales of 2 million cars in 2023, Reuters noted in its report.
This year is going to be even more challenging as the end of tax credit enters into effect and EV hesitancy persists, with doubts emerging about the quality of Tesla vehicles contributing to a troubling market environment.
