Musk’s 2012 compensation plan was basically “If the company achieves these absurd goals which everybody laughs at and calls impossible, I’ll get a chunk of the appreciation for myself. If the company achieves only impressive gains, I’ll get nothing.” The shareholders approved the deal by a huge margin.
It was completely performance based. He performed! As a shareholder I don’t begrudge him a penny of it. His 2018 plan is similar, with new absurd goals. Much of what must be achieved is revenue and profit, only some is market cap.
I am sure Warren has different standards for wholly owned companies he buys versus stock in companies he buys for the portfolio, but it occurs to me that there is probably some overlap even if the parameters are not equally drawn.
Mindful that the word “stable” can have two definitions, one meaning “unchanging” and the other being “not crazy”, when he says he’s looking for “stable management” I suspect that buying a large stake in any Musk dominated business would be, to understate it, an easy “no.”
To be clear, I don’t begrudge Mr. Musks pay package at all, good for him!
As WC Fields famously said, “It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.”
But if you think Mr. Buffett is going to invest in a business where all the earnings (and more) go into the pocket of the guy at the top, you may be suffering from a head injury.
(I know, Tesla stock went up in the past so it must go up in the future, got it.
Also Mr. Musk has put shareholder money into bitcoin and dodge coin so how can they lose?)
The main problem with Musk’s pay package is there’s no clock back when business turn sour a few years later. It’s not uncommon for some growing business to perform spectacular for some years and then turn sour.
BYD is absolutely a good company. Rivian makes a really good truck and better 6 seater SUV than Tesla… there are loads of Chinese electric car companies that are awesome.
BTW: We just got BETA FSD downloaded the other day.
It has taken roughly forever (5 years+) to develop the AI software. AI development is very time consuming, tedious and extremely costly.
My guess is that other OEMs may consider licensing Full Self Driving. It is so impressing. I cannot underscore that enough.
“We think that autonomous EV Semis could lower per ton mile costs of freight trucks to price-points competitive with rail.” ~Brett Winton, Ark Investments
Thanks for this, I am always super excited to hear what the world class cheerleaders, er analysts over at Ark investments have to say. Their track record is unmatched! (literally)
On 4/15/22 ARK raised its 5-year target on Tesla to $1,533.
Cathie Wood also said Bitcoin will be worth 1 million per coin by 2030!
Back up the autonomous electric truck, we are gonna be so rich!
TSLA went from from 0 to $600B market cap very quickly. They were much faster than the other fast growers like GOOG, AMZN and APPL v2.
Although I don’t like the companies ARKK picks, I am aligned with their thought that innovative companies will improve productivity and have a massive deflationary effect.
Tesla’s Semi and Cybertruck will have an outsized impact on global goods transportation in next 5 - 10 years.
I got the Christmas update for FSD Beta (2022.44.25.5) last night on my Model S. Haven’t driven it yet to see whether it’s gotten any better with the things it’s been failing at. Maybe later today.
Software updates are always exciting. Other than an update to FSD Beta this one has Apple Music, Steam gaming, Zoom support, and a host of other things, both large and small. Those with the Model Y Performance get Track Mode.
For me, I’ll be really pleased to be able to turn on auto-present door handles again. I’ve had it off since I got really tired of the handles popping out every time I walked past the car while it’s parked at home. But now they’ve added an option to not auto-present at home! With most cars, when they don’t behave quite the way you want, you just have to live with it forever. I love over the air software updates.
Oh yea, what is sure to happen is that Tesla will make trucks take it all from rails. That means you’ll be driving your little fireball electric car (that’s the one the TV commercial has you sporting in the wide-open beautiful countryside) trapped within a bunch of 18 wheelers to the point you can’t see the road signs.
Precisely adding to the quality of life for all of us of course, that’s Elon…who is laughing because we all are as important to him as “little X” or whatnot.
And Ron (the Barron) cheerleads and predicts…"Tesla market cap $100,000,000,000,000!
Of course I’m being completely silly with these posts. But the obsession with Tesla becomes comical and the addiction to such extreme low probabilty outcomes is nothing but also silly.
