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.
In a pointed message on X, Elon Musk warned that firms maintaining significant short positions in SpaceX over time face “very low” survival probability.
The statement comes amid post-IPO volatility for the rocket company, now trading under the ticker $SPCX.
The survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
Five weeks after what was described as the largest IPO in history, the stock had fallen roughly 30% from its peak above $2.6 trillion, briefly surpassing Microsoft and Amazon in market value. Short sellers celebrated gains of about $8.7 billion, but Musk’s reply underscores his long-term conviction.
The warning directly echoes a detailed bullish analysis arguing that Starship’s cost reductions could unlock a multi-trillion-dollar space economy. Projects ranging from solar power beamed from orbit and asteroid mining to orbital data centers and Mars terraforming were projected to create over $100 trillion in new market capitalization.
In this vision, SpaceX acts as the essential infrastructure provider, akin to AWS for cloud computing, capturing monopoly-like revenues from launches, crew transport, and data traffic across a rapidly expanding frontier.
This is far from the first time Musk has targeted short sellers. With Tesla, he has repeatedly framed persistent bears as destined for major losses. In July 2024, Musk declared that once Tesla achieves full autonomy and volume production of Optimus robots, “anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated. Even Gates,” referencing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ reported short bets.
Elon Musk reveals what Tesla stock surge could do to Bill Gates
Earlier, in 2018, he taunted shorts that they had “about three weeks before their short position explodes,” a remark followed by sharp stock gains. Musk has also called short selling “value destroying” and once suggested it “should be illegal,” viewing it as betting against innovation and progress.
Critics often dismiss Musk’s optimism as hype, especially when near-term metrics like quarterly deliveries or stock fluctuations disappoint.
Yet his pattern remains consistent: framing short positions against his companies as fundamentally misjudging exponential technological leaps. For SpaceX shorts, the message is clear: betting against multi-planetary ambitions and the infrastructure monopoly they enable carries existential risk for the firms involved.
As Musk and supporters see it, the space economy’s upside dwarfs Earth-bound valuation models, making today’s dips temporary in a decades-long ascent.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
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