Elon Musk says Saudi Aramco a company that is Tesla Inc’s main rival. The statement is surprising because Saudi Aramco is not an auto company like Tesla.
In a recent tweet, Elon Musk said that only when Tesla’s market cap exceeds that of Saudi Aramco, only then does he see the future for his business and for the world.
Indeed I did.
However, I also think that Tesla has the potential to be the most valuable company ever.
When Tesla’s market cap, making sustainable energy products, exceeds that of Aramco, producing fossil fuels, you know the future will be good for Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2022
Elon Musk’s remarks show that he sees Tesla’s main rivals based on market capitalization, not type of business. That’s why, Tesla’s rival is not Volkswagen, a German car manufacturer that is now serious about making the EV (electric car) transition.
Tesla’s rivals are also not GM and Ford, two United States (US) automotive companies that will release a lot of EVs in the next few years.
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In fact, Tesla’s rivals are neither Rivian nor Lucid, the two budding electric car makers, whom Tesla imitated for the first vehicle even for the Model S.
Tesla has indeed forced the world’s automotive industry to switch to producing electric vehicles. Its Model S does prove that an EV can be just as good or even better than a combustion-powered car. Tesla’s Model 3 shows that a good EV has a legitimate market among mainstream car buyers.
However, Elon Musk has always maintained that the EV business, despite being the most popular product, is just part of the Tesla ecosystem. This shows that Elon Musk has another vision for developing Tesla.
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And everything was answered through a tweet by Elon Musk that called Saudi Aramco as Tesla’s main rival. Not only in terms of market capitalization, but also in terms of making sustainable energy products.
Saudi Aramco had a market capitalization of US$2.431 trillion as of May 2022. Tesla, although much larger than any other automaker in the world, has a market cap of US$786.98 billion.
Tesla had hit a market cap of over $1 trillion previously, but in the grand scheme of things, the gap between Saudi Aramco and Tesla is still huge.
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However, Tesla has plans to significantly increase its reach in the coming years, not only in the auto sector but also in areas such as artificial intelligence.
Products like the Tesla Bot, as well as an ecosystem of home products like smart HVAC systems, have the potential to make Tesla a household name like Apple.
If Tesla could develop an ecosystem of renewable solutions, then it would be the complete opposite of a company like Aramco, and it could be the perfect company to beat the Saudi Arabian company.