Elon Musk's $44B Twitter Deal A 'Small Price,' Says Raoul Pal — It Could Unlock Real Value For This Key Tesla Product

While Tesla Inc. TSLA bulls such as Wedbush’s Daniel Ives opine that Elon Musk overpaid for Twitter, economist Raoul Pal seems to think otherwise.

What Happened: Musk has taken one of the largest data sources on Earth private, Pal said in a tweet, adding that the data could be used to train artificial intelligence on human interactions and thoughts.

See Also: Advertisers Are Secretly Fearing Twitter With Musk At The Helm - And He Needs Them

Referring to Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot, Pal said, “When you own the robots, you need to train them at scale.”

“400m people screaming laughing, crying, scamming, helping etc, all emotions are on Twitter,” he added.

Weighing in the benefits and calling Musk a genius, Pal said $44 billion is probably a small price the Tesla CEO may have paid.

When a Twitter user pointed out that Musk has fired the social media platform's AI team, Pal said the billionaire has his own, which is one of the best in the world. He needs AI for Twitter less than he needs it for Optimus, Pal added.

Why It’s Important: At Tesla’s AI Day 2022 held in October, Musk said Optimus will likely be priced around $20,000 and will be made commercially available in three to five years.

Although less hopeful of the availability by the timeframe, Loup Funds’ Gene Munster said, if Optimus, though a long shot, meets even half of what Musk aspires for it, it could become a material part of the Tesla investment case over the next 20 years.

Price Action: Tesla closed Friday’s session at $207.47, down 3.64%, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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