But I mean, couldn't GE do that too? Or Samsung/Murata/Vishay/Maxwell/Panasonic/etc.? It kind of seems like the stocks are trading largely on the strength of Musk's vision. I am kind of okay with letting mad scientists-cum-Bond villains like Musk and Bezos run amok with billions of dollars, though. I mean why not, it's a bit of a wildcard and it makes about as much sense as anything else that's happening right now.
Sure. So could Martha Stewart, or Jeff Bezos.
That hard part is actually doing it and doing it well. Is GE better positioned to do it than Tesla? Not really. It's a complex problem involving advanced software, engineering, branding, customer service, talent retention, supply chain, and myriad other challenges. Tesla is better at some of these things, worse at others. But they're going for it. GE, GM, et al don't appear to be moving aggressively towards these goals at all.
Or space elevators, or flying cars.
This is the goal:
https://www.tesla.com/tesla_theme/assets/img/solar/section-h...
Powerwall Solar roof Car
All made/sold by Tesla.
If Apple can be a multi-billion dollar company making laptops, phones, and an app store, I don't really see the Tesla "could be a trillion dollar company" as too far-fetched.
I mean this is the era when SnapChat is "worth 25 billion".
Anything could be anything. The challenge for Tesla is that they validated the electric car market and managed to carve out some market share, but now they are in the sights of every car manufacturer in the world. It's a different ball game for them. Car companies know how to make cars at scale, Tesla doesn't. It's a big challenge.
Huh?