Investor's Corner
Jim Cramer gives inside look at how a Tesla skeptic turns into a TSLA bull
If one were to watch some videos about Tesla back in 2010, one would probably encounter videos of Mad Money host Jim Cramer advising long term investors to stay away from the electric car maker. For a while, Cramer was a Tesla skeptic, at some points even trading barbs with Elon Musk on Twitter. But eventually, Cramer announced that he was no longer bearish against the company, and since then, he has become one of TSLA’s most vocal bulls.
In a recent conversation with Rob Maurer of the Tesla Daily podcast, Cramer shared the inside story behind his change from a bearish skeptic into a full-on TSLA bull. According to the Wall Street veteran, his shift has been nothing short of a religious conversion, and it involved experiences with his daughter, wife, and close friends in the financial sphere.
The Mad Money host noted that one of his initial experiences with Tesla involved his daughter, who drove from Oregon to California. Cramer noted that his daughter was not a car person at all, but she proved very enthusiastic about the all-electric car. This is quite remarkable, as Cramer noted that Tesla essentially turned his daughter into a car enthusiast.
“I think what happened was basically a religious conversion. I went out to California. My daughter had just driven a Tesla from Oregon from where she was living to Los Angeles, and she talked about charging, talked about how fun it was, talked about the flatulence button, and said, you know, ‘Dad, I’ve been driving for 12 years, I’ve never cared about what I drove. It’s never been important.’ She had a beat-up 2008 Ford Fiesta that she’d been driving. She just wasn’t a car person. But Tesla made her into a car person,” he said.
The same enthusiasm over Tesla’s vehicles was interestingly shared by his wife, according to Cramer. Unlike his daughter, his wife is an avid car person, and she loved the company’s all-electric vehicles. But ultimately, the experience that truly changed the Mad Money host’s mind about Tesla was a drive he had with two friends who were Tesla owners. Cramer noted that when he mentioned what he believed were weaknesses in Tesla’s financials, his friend, who was a former CFO, pointed out that the company could raise $2 billion in a snap. That, according to Cramer, was his conversion.
“Then I went out to see a couple of friends of mine. One an executive in a Silicon Valley company, another, a former CFO, and they had all Teslas. And my wife, who is a complete car person, I mean a nut car person, just loves it. Her favorite thing is a ’94 Range Rover that she has. She said, ‘This is it.’ She drove it, and she said, ‘This is it.’ Now we have not bought one yet because she’s frugal enough to be able to say ‘Listen, Jim, you should buy it because you live in Summit, New Jersey, and you can use it as a go-around car.’
“But when I was driving with it, (with) the person who was a retired CFO, I said ‘You know what, my daughter loves it, my wife loves it, it’s so cool, but they don’t have the financials that make it so that I can recommend it at 260 (per share).’ And he looked at me and goes ‘Jim, they could raise $2 billion (just) like that.’ That was a religious conversion. The conversion was right there. Because then, I knew that the balance sheet was not in question,” he said.
Ultimately, Cramer stated that it came to the point where he realized that it was futile to fight progress. And as it turned out, his bullish turn proved to be the correct decision. According to the Mad Money host, surrendering and recommending Tesla became his best call this year. “I said, what am I doing? Why am I fighting progress? So I surrendered, and it’s the best call I’ve made this year.”
Watch Jim Cramer and Rob Maurer’s Tesla recent discussion in the video below.
Investor's Corner
Tesla just did something in South Korea that no foreign carmaker has ever done
Tesla’s Model Y just became South Korea’s best-selling car, beating every domestic model in May.
Tesla did something last month that no foreign car has ever done in South Korea by outselling every vehicle in the country, domestic or imported, finishing the month with Model Y as the single best-selling car across the entire Korean market. According to data from the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association released on June 4, the Model Y recorded 8,762 units sold in May, pushing the Kia Sorento into second place at 7,836 units and the Hyundai Grandeur into third at 5,183 units. It is the first time an imported vehicle has outsold every domestic model on a single-month basis.
Tesla imported 10,866 cars into South Korea in May, making it the top import brand for the fourth consecutive month. BMW followed at 6,555 units, less than two-thirds of Tesla’s total, while BYD registered just 1,032 units. The combined domestic sales of GM Korea, Renault Korea, and KG Mobility last month totaled just 7,019 units, meaning a single Tesla model outsold three Korean automakers combined.
Tesla FSD earns high praise in South Korea’s real-world autonomous driving test
South Korea has historically been one of the hardest markets for foreign automakers to crack. Hyundai and Kia together control close to 70% of the overall market and carry deep consumer loyalty built over decades. Tesla’s path into this market was an uphill battle due to high import duties, limited service infrastructure, and early skepticism about charging networks. In 2024, the Model Y was the best-selling imported car in South Korea with 18,717 units for the full year. By 2025, after the Juniper refresh, it cleared 50,000 units and took the top spot among all EVs.
Year to date, Tesla has a 250.8% increase in the country over the same period last year, and now holds a 30.8% share of the entire imported car segment for 2026. EVs as a category represented 48.6% of all imported passenger car registrations in May. As Teslarati has reported, the Juniper refresh brought meaningful improvements to range, interior quality, and ride refinement that addressed the most common criticisms of earlier Model Y versions. Those upgrades appear to be resonating in markets like South Korea where buyers compare Tesla directly against high end domestic competitors.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) stands to reap one of the most extraordinary returns in pension fund history thanks to a bold 2019 investment in SpaceX.
According to a recent report from The Globe and Mail, the Toronto-based fund invested roughly $300 million CAD (~$220 million USD at the time) in Elon Musk’s space company as its inaugural deal through the Teachers’ Innovation Platform.
At SpaceX’s anticipated $1.75 trillion IPO valuation, set for a mid-June debut on Nasdaq under ticker $SPCX, that stake could now be worth up to $11.6 billion USD. This would represent a roughly 50x return and easily become OTPP’s most successful single investment ever.
The fund manages $279 billion in assets for approximately 346,000 working and retired teachers in Ontario, potentially delivering an average boost of around $33,500 per member if fully realized.
SpaceX has filed its S-1 and plans to price shares at $135 each, aiming to raise a record $75 billion in what would be the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco. The company reported $18.67 billion in revenue for 2025, driven primarily by Starlink satellite internet growth and NASA contracts, though it continues to post significant losses tied to ambitious R&D in Starship and AI initiatives.
Important pieces moving forward include:
- Starlink Expansion: The satellite broadband service is scaling rapidly, targeting global connectivity, especially in underserved rural and remote areas. This segment offers massive recurring revenue potential as numbers climb.
- Starship and Reusability Leadership: SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship aims to slash launch costs dramatically, enabling frequent missions, Mars ambitions, and lucrative government/defense contracts. Success here could unlock exponential growth.
- AI and Diversification: Recent moves, including ties to xAI, position SpaceX in high-growth AI infrastructure, broadening beyond traditional aerospace.
- Validation Scrutiny: While the $1.75 trillion target excites investors, analysts like Morningstar value the company closer to $780 billion, citing high multiples (around 90x trailing revenue) and execution risks. A 180-day lockup period will prevent early investors like OTPP from selling immediately post-IPO.
The irony has not been lost on observers. Ontario’s government previously canceled a Starlink rural internet contract amid political tensions involving Musk, yet the pension fund’s savvy investment, made when SpaceX was valued around $33-36 billion, and Starlink was nascent, delivers outsized gains independent of politics.
For OTPP, this windfall strengthens its already solid 111 percent funding ratio and underscores the value of patient, innovation-focused capital allocation.
For SpaceX, the IPO marks a new chapter: greater transparency, access to public markets for talent retention and growth capital, and heightened pressure to deliver on its multi-planetary vision.
All eyes are fixed on whether SpaceX can justify its lofty valuation through sustained execution. For Ontario teachers, the returns are already stellar, but SpaceX, like other Musk companies in the past, has plenty of things to prove. Perhaps the most ideal person for the job is at the helm, hoping to bring the company to a massive valuation.
Tesla has its answer to grow its automotive sales over the next few years, TD Cowen analyst Itay Michaeli says, but it just has to bring it to the U.S.
On Thursday, Michaeli reiterated his $490 price target and the ‘Buy’ rating he already held on Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA). However, its automotive division has struggled to show sequential growth over the past few years, mostly due to its focus on AI and Full Self-Driving. Tesla already axed two of its lower-volume vehicles with the Model S and Model X earlier this year.
However, Tesla does not need to engineer an entire new vehicle to trigger an upward tick in sales; it just has to bring it from China to the U.S., Michaeli said.
He is talking about the Model Y L, a slightly larger version of the all-electric crossover that is already available in China. U.S. customers have been pleading with CEO Elon Musk to bring it to the country since its launch in Asia last year, but he’s not convinced of it because of the advent of self-driving and its importance in this particular market.
The problem is that Tesla owners have been requesting something larger that could fit a typical American family. The Model Y L is slightly larger than the standard Model Y, but some are concerned that it could still be too small to fit what most people might need.
Instead, they have asked for a full-size SUV from Tesla.
Tesla gives big hint that it will build Cyber SUV, smaller Cybertruck
Nevertheless, the Model Y L still presents a great opportunity for Tesla in the U.S., and Michaeli says that there is an additional sales opportunity of about 100,000 units, with demand potential falling somewhere between 60,000 and 135,000 units.
TD Cowen’s note to investors also analyzed that Tesla’s growth could come from a stock perspective as well, positively impacting the stock price, as it has been widely reliant on vehicle sales, even though Tesla has truly phased itself away from that being an important metric.
Tesla stands to gain greatly from the introduction of the Model Y L in the U.S., but only if Elon Musk sees it as a viable fit for the market. Families may need to see Tesla bring something larger to the U.S., or they might be forced to buy from another automaker that offers something that fits is needs for more interior space to haul around the kids.
Tesla tipped its hand at where Robotaxi is heading next
Tesla just did something in South Korea that no foreign carmaker has ever done
