What's Going on in the World of Tesla Investor Relations?
Alex Reale
· 3 min read
Investing in companies can be a fraught experience. You’re taking an educated guess and trusting a C-suite to make smart choices that you hope will eventually line your pockets. With any firm, this is an exercise in faith, but when you take a company like
Tesla
, this faith can cross over into fanaticism.CEO Elon Musk’s tweets are Tesla investors’ Book of Revelation, and the more obscure, the better. People love the technology, but they might love the leader more. The success or failure of Tesla investor relations appears to be more than a little bit based on the
movements of Elon Musk
.
Tesla investors are loyal fans of Elon Musk
For those who were impressed enough by the Model S to invest in Tesla in 2013, it’s been a great few years. The self-named “Teslanaires” invested some thousands of dollars in the company during this time and wound up with millions, as reported by
BBC
. Their reflections on the amassment of this wealth are curiously personal. One calls watching his investment’s ups and downs less stressful than “seeing the media attack Elon and Tesla.” He added, “That was worse for me than the share price decline, which I knew would eventually bounce back.”
Another investor enjoys being able to “tell all the naysayers 'I told you so.'" An allegiance to Musk (who is often jocularly referred to as “Elon”) is a common thread in a lot of investors’ discussions of their holdings.
Keeping an eye on Elon
Other investors take their allegiance to the SpaceX founder to the level of almost parental concern. Ron Baron, of Baron Capital, recently spoke to
CNBC
about his involvement in Tesla, which garnered him $6 billion from a $380 million investment.Baron praises Musk’s innovation in electric vehicles and space exploration, noting that college graduates are champing at the bit to work for Tesla or SpaceX. He then expresses his hope that Musk stays in good health. “He sleeps five hours a day and he works 19 hours a day...so short term, that’s the risk,” he says about Tesla’s future earning capability.
Baron didn't add any comments or thoughts on the approximately 70,000 employees who work for Tesla or the nearly 10,000 at SpaceX. This investment is about one man’s green juice intake.
What’s on the horizon for Tesla?
Tesla investors will get a chance to hear the voice of their favorite CEO in January, reports
Fox Business
. CFO Zachary Kirkhorn and investor relations director Martin Viecha have been handling quarterly revenue calls without his input, and Musk has promised to jump on only when he has “something really important” to share. That something really important will be revealed at the beginning of the new year. According to Musk’s Twitter, it will have a lot to do with an “updated product roadmap” after COVID-related supply chain setbacks. After all, we’re all still waiting for that
Cybertruck
.Whether you are an Elon stan or not, investor relations at Tesla appear to be a mostly pleasant and transparent affair. You can download their quarterly earnings for yourself on the
Tesla
website, and listen in on past discussions. Maybe you’ll be inspired to set your sights on becoming a Teslanaire.
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