Elon Musk has become the most influential CEO in the world in recent months.
His popularity continues to climb day by day.
He has nearly 130 million followers on Twitter. Each of his tweets and messages is seen by millions of the social network's users and covered by the media.
The personality of the billionaire, and his promises to change the modes of transport of today and the future, have enabled Tesla (TSLA), the manufacturer of electric vehicles of which he is the CEO and co-founder, to experience an unprecedented stock market rise for an automotive group.
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Tesla's market valuation is currently at $622 billion. It is more than $400 billion than Toyota Motor (TOYOF) , the worlds' largest carmaker in terms of sales last year. The Japanese group currently has a market value of $188 billion. Musk inspires investors with enormous confidence, which justifies this valuation of Tesla, which is not viewed the same way as its rivals. The automaker is seen more as a tech group than a car manufacturer.
Basically, the billionaire does not need anyone else to establish the power and notoriety of Tesla. He embodies the brand, and as long as he is in charge, investors should continue to push the company's stock to the top.
Buffett Is a Shareholder of a Chinese Rival of Musk
While he has the confidence of many investors, there is one who is missing. This is the legendary investor Warren Buffett, whose philosophy is to understand a company's business before investing in it.
But the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffett is nicknamed, invested in BYD, Tesla's big Chinese competitor. BYD sold more clean vehicles than Musk's company last year. But Tesla remains the world leader when only electric vehicles are taken into account, because BYD also sells hybrid vehicles -- gasoline + electric motorization.
Buffett, via his holding Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), invested in BYD in 2008, by acquiring 225 million shares, equivalent to about $232 million. Since then, the investment has grown substantially, with BYD's stock price rising significantly over the years.
For several months, however, the billionaire has started to reduce his stake in BYD. Berkshire has sold nearly 95 million of its original 225 million shares of the company, after selling another 4.235 million shares, worth nearly $140 million last month, the firm announced in a regulatory filing early this month.
The holding remains one of the company's biggest shareholders with 130.3 million shares, representing about a 12% stake in the Chinese group.
It was in this context that a Twitter user asked which company Buffett should invest in, given that Berkshire Hathaway ended 2022 with a big war chest. Indeed, the holding's cash mountain amounted to $128.65 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, up from nearly $109 billion in the third quarter.
"Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway now has over $128 billion dollars in cash, what stocks should they buy?" the Twitter user asked.
Musk immediately replied that the holding company should invest in Tesla.
"Starts with a T …" the billionaire said.
Lunch with Charlie Munger
He then explained that if Berkshire Hathaway had seized the opportunity to invest in Tesla in 2008, the company would have made a huge profit today, because Tesla was then valued at $200 million. Its market value is now more than $600 billion. Tesla's market value had even reached $1 trillion in October 2021 and also last March.
"Munger could’ve invested in Tesla at ~$200M valuation when I had lunch with him in late 2008," Musk added.
Charlie Munger is Buffett's right-hand man and vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. This is not the first time that Musk has mentioned what he considers a missed opportunity for Berkshire Hathaway. Last year, he said that Munger told him that Tesla would fail, going back to 2009.
"I was at a lunch with Munger in 2009 where he told the whole table all the ways Tesla would fail," the tech mogul posted on Feb.16, 2022. "Made me quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those reasons & that we would probably die, but it was worth trying anyway."
Musk does not seem to have held a grudge against Munger and Berkshire Hathaway. An investment by the holding company in Tesla would be a huge victory for Musk, because it would send a strong and reassuring message about Tesla both to the traditional financial establishment and to retail investors, who admire Buffett's strokes of financial genius.
But Munger recently reiterated that BYD is way ahead of Tesla.
When asked recently whether he prefers BYD over Tesla, Munger's response was emphatic. He pointed out that last year, while Musk's company lowered its vehicle prices in China, BYD was actually able to charge more.
"That's easy, Tesla last year reduced its prices in China twice while BYD increased its prices. BYD is so ahead of Tesla in China it's almost ridiculous. If you count all the manufacturing space BYD has in China to make cars, it would amount to a big percentage of all the land in Manhattan Island," Munger said.
