Investor's Corner
Tesla celebrates its 10-year IPO anniversary: A look back at TSLA’s storied decade
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary at the stock market. Since the company held its initial public offering, TSLA stock has been on a massive bull run, earning its investors about 45% a year on average. That’s quite impressive, especially for a company that entered one of the most competitive industries in the market using vehicles that were once thought of as nothing but glorified golf carts.
Tesla held its IPO on June 29, 2010. During the time, Tesla was in need of funding, and its entrance into the stock market provided the company with a much needed boost to get its rhythm going. Tesla’s IPO was priced at $17, which valued the company at about $1.7 billion. Since then, TSLA stock has aggressively risen, with the company breaching the $1,000 per share barrier this month.
Overall, steep swings due to its trademark volatility aside, Tesla stock has earned investors 5,677% over the past decade. That’s an average of about 45% per year, quite an achievement for a company that is ranked among the world’s automakers.
Today, Tesla is valued only second to Toyota in the car industry. Of course, Toyota far outsells the much smaller Tesla, with the Japanese auto giant selling about 9 million vehicles each year with sales of about $234 billion. Tesla, on the other hand, sold over 360,000 vehicles last year with about $26 billion in sales. But these numbers alone miss the big picture.
A look at Tesla’s pace of growth over the decade shows a company that is expanding fast. Back in 2010, Tesla sales came in at less than $120 million and it was built on the back of the original Roadster, a small sports car that was priced beyond $100,000 per unit. Over the past ten years, these sales numbers are up by a factor of more than 200, as per Barron’s. Toyota, on the other round, has grown too, but nowhere near as much, with the Japanese automaker’s sales coming in at about $200 billion in 2010.
This is not to say that Tesla has not met challenges over the past decade, of course. Electric cars are a hard sell to begin with, and the negative sentiments surrounding the vehicles themselves were prominent, from the long tailpipe myth to range anxiety. Tesla was able to address these largely with the Model S, its first vehicle that was designed from the ground up. The Model S was well-reviewed, at one point even being dubbed as the 2013 MotorTrend Car of the Year.
If there is something that Tesla has shown, it would be foresight. Even if it only had the Model S, the company already began setting up a Supercharger Network that would allow its vehicles to charge their batteries quickly and conveniently. This allowed Tesla owners to conduct long trips without much issue, something that was rarely possible with previous electric cars.
The company also established a Gigafactory in Nevada in anticipation of the arrival of the Model 3, its first mass market car. The idea of a mammoth factory that only produces electric car batteries and powertrains seemed like a questionable idea then, and it was met by critics’ vocal opposition, but it ultimately paid off as the Model 3 hit its stride in the United States and in other countries.
Tesla today is at a very different place compared to where it was when it debuted in the stock market. Today, Tesla stands as the gold standard of EVs, and its always-connected, tech-driven vehicles are now being emulated by the world’s largest automakers such as Volkswagen. Elon Musk has always stated that Tesla’s goal is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy, and so far, the company appears to be doing just that. Ultimately, Tesla has done the near impossible: it was able to disrupt the auto market.
Tesla shares are up more than 130% year to date as of the company’s 10-year IPO anniversary yesterday, surpassing comparable returns of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
As of writing, Tesla stock is up 1.43% at $1,023.77 per share.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Elon Musk
Tesla stock gets latest synopsis from Jim Cramer: ‘It’s actually a robotics company’
“Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session,” Cramer said.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) got its latest synopsis from Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer, who finally realized something that many fans of the company have known all along: it’s not a car company. Instead, it’s a robotics company.
In a recent note that was released after Tesla reported Earnings in late January, Cramer seemed to recognize that the underwhelming financials and overall performance of the automotive division were not representative of the current state of affairs.
Instead, we’re seeing a company transition itself away from its early identity, essentially evolving like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
The narrative of the Earnings Call was simple: We’re not a car company, at least not from a birds-eye view. We’re an AI and Robotics company, and we are transitioning to this quicker than most people realize.
Tesla stock gets another analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like it
Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call featured plenty of analysis from CEO Elon Musk and others, and some of the more minor details of the call were even indicative of a company that is moving toward AI instead of its cars. For example, the Model S and Model X will be no more after Q2, as Musk said that they serve relatively no purpose for the future.
Instead, Tesla is shifting its focus to the vehicles catered for autonomy and its Robotaxi and self-driving efforts.
Cramer recognizes this:
“…we got results from Tesla, which actually beat numbers, but nobody cares about the numbers here, as electric vehicles are the past. And according to CEO Elon Musk, the future of this company comes down to Cybercabs and humanoid robots. Stock fell more than 3% the next day. That may be because their capital expenditures budget was higher than expected, or maybe people wanted more details from the new businesses. At this point, I think Musk acolytes might be more excited about SpaceX, which is planning to come public later this year.”
He continued, highlighting the company’s true transition away from vehicles to its Cybercab, Optimus, and AI ambitions:
“I know it’s hard to believe how quickly this market can change its attitude. Last night, I heard a disastrous car company speak. Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session. I didn’t like it as a car company. Boy, I love it as a Cybercab and humanoid robot juggernaut. Call me a buyer and give me five robots while I’m at it.”
Cramer’s narrative seems to fit that of the most bullish Tesla investors. Anyone who is labeled a “permabull” has been echoing a similar sentiment over the past several years: Tesla is not a car company any longer.
Instead, the true focus is on the future and the potential that AI and Robotics bring to the company. It is truly difficult to put Tesla shares in the same group as companies like Ford, General Motors, and others.
Tesla shares are down less than half a percent at the time of publishing, trading at $423.69.
There are a lot of Tesla bulls out there who have astronomical expectations for the company, especially as its arm of reach has gone well past automotive and energy and entered artificial intelligence and robotics.
However, some of the most bullish Tesla investors believe the company could become worth $100 trillion, and CEO Elon Musk does not believe that number is completely out of the question, even if it sounds almost ridiculous.
To put that number into perspective, the top ten most valuable companies in the world — NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Meta, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom, and Tesla — are worth roughly $26 trillion.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes the number is reasonable considering Tesla’s long-reaching industry ambitions:
“…in the world of AI, what do you have to have to win? You have to have proprietary data, and think about all the proprietary data he has, different kinds of proprietary data. Tesla, the language of the road; Neuralink, multiomics data; nobody else has that data. X, nobody else has that data either. I could see $100 trillion. I think it’s going to happen because of convergence. I think Tesla is the leading candidate [for $100 trillion] for the reason I just said.”
Musk said late last year that all of his companies seem to be “heading toward convergence,” and it’s started to come to fruition. Tesla invested in xAI, as revealed in its Q4 Earnings Shareholder Deck, and SpaceX recently acquired xAI, marking the first step in the potential for a massive umbrella of companies under Musk’s watch.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
Now that it is happening, it seems Musk is even more enthusiastic about a massive valuation that would swell to nearly four-times the value of the top ten most valuable companies in the world currently, as he said on X, the idea of a $100 trillion valuation is “not impossible.”
It’s not impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2026
Tesla is not just a car company. With its many projects, including the launch of Robotaxi, the progress of the Optimus robot, and its AI ambitions, it has the potential to continue gaining value at an accelerating rate.
Musk’s comments show his confidence in Tesla’s numerous projects, especially as some begin to mature and some head toward their initial stages.
Elon Musk
Tesla director pay lawsuit sees lawyer fees slashed by $100 million
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
The Delaware Supreme Court has cut more than $100 million from a legal fee award tied to a shareholder lawsuit challenging compensation paid to Tesla directors between 2017 and 2020.
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
Delaware Supreme Court trims legal fees
As noted in a Bloomberg Law report, the case targeted pay granted to Tesla directors, including CEO Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and Rupert Murdoch. The Delaware Chancery Court had awarded $176 million to the plaintiffs. Tesla’s board must also return stock options and forego years worth of pay.
As per Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. in an opinion for the Delaware Supreme Court’s full five-member panel, however, the decision of the Delaware Chancery Court to award $176 million to a pension fund’s law firm “erred by including in its financial benefit analysis the intrinsic value” of options being returned by Tesla’s board.
The justices then reduced the fee award from $176 million to $70.9 million. “As we measure it, $71 million reflects a reasonable fee for counsel’s efforts and does not result in a windfall,” Chief Justice Seitz wrote.
Other settlement terms still intact
The Supreme Court upheld the settlement itself, which requires Tesla’s board to return stock and options valued at up to $735 million and to forgo three years of additional compensation worth about $184 million.
Tesla argued during oral arguments that a fee award closer to $70 million would be appropriate. Interestingly enough, back in October, Justice Karen L. Valihura noted that the $176 award was $60 million more than the Delaware judiciary’s budget from the previous year. This was quite interesting as the case was “settled midstream.”
The lawsuit was brought by a pension fund on behalf of Tesla shareholders and focused exclusively on director pay during the 2017–2020 period. The case is separate from other high-profile compensation disputes involving Elon Musk.
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