By what definition? The chance of bankruptcy over the next five years is undoubtedly higher for Tesla. I think you are grossly misrepresenting Ford's balance sheet:

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/f/financials/bal...

Tesla is valued in large part based on the kind of math you'd commonly see applied to a VC backed company three orders of magnitude smaller; multiplying a large payoff value by a small chance of success.

People are making a bet on it becoming a trillion dollar behemoth that snatches tons of market share from energy and automobile companies during the turbulent switch over to renewable energy.

If you're confident in their execution, it's worth it to have Tesla swing for the fences chasing this vision even if there's a large chance of failure. Assuming of course you have diversified - I think you'd have to have a screw loose to go all in.

This is wildly misleading. Ford's debt mostly comes from it's financing arm. The name of the game there is to borrow money at a low interest rate and lend it out at a high one. The more debt Ford has the more money its making.

you really think tesla has a better chance of surviving than ford in the next 5 years?

They both look good to me. Ford is taking all the right steps to transition while keeping their current product relevant.

Tesla has a clear path forward, they are just raising to start Model Y, Semi and Pickup production.

Yes.