Elon Musk is very optimistic about Tesla's prospects for the future, so much so that he believes the EV maker has what it takes to become the world's most valuable company, of any industry.
During Tesla's Q3 2022 earnings call announcing revenues of $21.5 billion—about $500 million below analyst forecasts—the tech mogul said he could see the company becoming more valuable than Apple and Saudi Aramco. These are the world's No. 1 and No. 2 companies at the moment in terms of valuation.
Now, you may recall that Musk said before that he thought it was possible for Tesla to be worth more than Apple. At the time, the consumer electronics giant was valued around $700 billion, which is roughly what Tesla is worth at the moment based on its market capitalization.
In the meantime, Elon Musk has revised his forecast and now believes Tesla could be worth much more in the future not just than Apple but also Saudi Aramco—combined! Right now, Apple is valued at $2.31 trillion, while Saudi Aramco is worth $2.09 trillion.
In theory, that means Tesla's value would have to jump from a current $695 billion to $4.4 trillion, which is something Elon Musk believes possible, although he says that doesn't mean it will happen.
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"Several years ago, I said, I think on an earnings call, that I thought it was possible for Tesla to be worth more than Apple, which at the time was worth about $700 billion. [...] Now I'm of the opinion that we can far exceed Apple's current market cap. In fact, I see a potential path for Tesla to be worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined."
That path will obviously be very difficult and require "incredible executional part, massive amount of hard work and some luck,” he added. Mind you, Musk noted that he didn't include the Optimus bot in his forecast. Previously, he said the bot had the potential "to be more significant than the vehicle business over time."
Musk reminded the audience during the earnings call that Tesla's huge growth potential comes from the fact it doesn't make just cars and batteries; it is much more than that. The company produces utility scale battery storage (Megapacks), solar panels and Powerwall home batteries, and semiconductors.
On top of that, Tesla has its own EV fast-charging network (Supercharger) that will soon open to non-Tesla EVs in the US, Full Self-Driving and Autopilot advanced driver-assistance systems, own insurance service, and more.
The company is also dedicated to AI, with its engineers currently working on important projects like the Optimus bot, Dojo Supercomputer and other AI applications. As all these activities mature and reach their full potential, they could in theory make Tesla the world's most valuable company.
