Billionaire investor and Baron Capital CEO Ron Baron envisions Tesla Inc TSLA achieving a $4 trillion market capitalization in a decade, a sentiment shared by company CEO Elon Musk.
What Happened: Musk responded to Baron’s hopeful estimates on Thursday, stating, “We do need to knock the ball out of the park several times to achieve that value, but I think we can.”
Baron’s insights emerged during an interview with MarketWatch on Wednesday, during which he discussed Tesla and his involvement with Musk’s rocket manufacturing firm, SpaceX.
Having invested approximately $400 million, equivalent to 2% of his assets under management, in Tesla between 2014 and 2016, Baron explained the company’s initial investment decision in 2014.
Despite early skepticism, Baron commended Musk’s “mission-driven” approach and described him as a “brilliant” individual.
“We have made twenty times the money since then,” Baron said while projecting further growth that could eventually lead to a market cap of $4 trillion. Currently, Tesla’s valuation stands at approximately $654 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Baron likened the future of Tesla to “Intel inside computers,” suggesting that the company will expand beyond automotive manufacturing to become a major supplier of autonomous driving software.
See Also: Everything You Need to Know About Tesla Stock
Why It Matters: In September, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas boosted Tesla’s price target to $400 by 60%, saying the company’s customer supercomputer Dojo has the potential to add a remarkable $500 billion to its enterprise value, primarily driven by a faster adoption rate in mobility and network services.
Analysts at Ark Investment Management, led by Cathie Wood, also see Dojo as one of the three key drivers of Tesla's growth, alongside robotaxis and full self-driving capability.
Musk has previously foreseen Tesla’s market capitalization surpassing other major companies.
In June, Musk suggested that it was “possible” for Tesla’s market cap to exceed the combined market values of Apple Inc and oil giant Saudi Aramco.
However, in the last quarter, Tesla reported third-quarter revenue of $23.35 billion, missing a Street consensus estimate of $24.38 billion. The company also reported production and vehicle delivery numbers below second-quarter numbers, a slump attributed to planned downtimes for factory upgrades.
Further, during the company’s earnings call last month, Musk raised concerns pertaining to increased interest rates making EVs more expensive for buyers and subsequently lowering demand. However, the company has retained its delivery goal of 1.8 million vehicles for the year.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
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