Elon Musk took the stage and performed a celebratory jump. His arms stretched wide above his head and he jumped with glee.
An emboldened Musk has just been re-granted a $46 billion pay plan that a Delaware judge had previously thrown out. Tesla shareholders voted to restore the stake that the company’s board had lobbied for and signed an agreement to move its state of incorporation to Texas.
“I just want to start by saying that I fucking love you guys,” Musk told Tesla shareholders at a meeting in Austin and those who are live.
DAMN I LOVE YOU GUYS! ♥️
一 Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/mIt1fZ9Qi3
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) June 13, 2024
Immediately after the preliminary voting results were announced, the gathered crowd burst into applause. Shareholders were then treated to a video touting Tesla’s sustainability efforts, new product lines and its innovative portfolio, which includes fully self-driving cars and a line of humanoid robots called Optimus. The video opened with a voiceover from some of Tesla’s harshest critics. “Tesla could go bankrupt,” boomed the voice of investor Per Lekander, a renowned Tesla bear.
In the video, Musk brushed off those criticisms, as he did just minutes later with the confidence typical of his live performance. In his speech, Musk laid out his vision for Tesla’s future, which hinges on its ability to produce fully autonomous vehicles. “We’re not just opening a new chapter for Tesla—we’re starting a new book,” Musk said.
According to Musk, Tesla has a bright financial future. “I think we can increase the value of the company by 110 times just through vehicle autonomy,” Musk said. “I believe that is exactly what will happen.”
At least one investor agreed with his lofty forecast. ARK Invest, a fund run by longtime backer Cathie Wood, said it believes Tesla can reach Market capitalization $8 trillion.. Wood’s firm has set a whopping $2,600 price target for Tesla in 2029. The analysis bet that self-driving cars would transform their revenue model and profit margins into those of a software company. “It becomes a recurring revenue model, part of every mile driven in this autonomous taxi network,” Wood. said CNBC on Thursday morning before the vote.
Musk has previously said that once Tesla completes development of its self-driving software, the company will immediately load it onto all of its vehicles currently on the market. This could create a fleet of self-driving cars almost overnight, potentially sharing revenue with Tesla. The plan often overlooks the role regulators would have to play in allowing the move.
“You can really think of Tesla almost entirely in terms of solving the question of autonomy and being able to use that autonomy for a giant fleet of vehicles,” Musk said during an earnings conference call in April. “When that happens, it could be the biggest increase in asset values in history where you can drive completely unattended.”
Musk criticized many investors for not understanding the significance of Tesla’s plans. He singled out institutional investors who live in New York because “they don’t drive cars.”
According to Musk, the fleet will be monetized by imitating the business models of Uber and Airbnb. Like Uber, Tesla will offer a car-sharing service—this time without a driver. However, most importantly, Uber does not own the fleet of cars that it uses, as Musk suggested, Tesla. Musk predicted that once autonomous Teslas become a reality, people will turn their cars into temporary taxis, just as Airbnb allows users to turn their homes into hotels.
If you’re “going away for a week, all it takes is one tap on the Tesla app,” Musk said to applause from the audience. “Your car is added to the fleet, and it just makes you money while you’re away.”
Musk called the changes “just a matter of time.” In the past, he has overpromised some critical parts of Tesla’s business. He finished his many other enterprises. In 2016 Musk stated that self-driving cars would be available by 2018—a promise he still makes today. He predicted that by 2020 there would be million robotaxi on road. Although there are some robotaxis in some cities they are unlikely to be a common form of transport.
This time, Musk appears to have formulated his predictions with some caveats.
“I admit, sometimes I’m a little optimistic,” Musk said. “So I don’t have a complete lack of self-awareness.”
However, still on his victory lap, he couldn’t help himself. “But if I wasn’t an optimist, this wouldn’t exist, this factory wouldn’t exist.”