Elon Musk is probably a genius and will pull off the impossible, many times over. However, how can the stockholders make money buying TSLA shares at current prices? He is running very capital intensive businesses (namely car manufacturing, solar panels and batteries). He already deployed a huge amount of capital and will probably keep doing so. Right now people are trading TSLA shares at 12.61 times those investments (12.6 price to book ratio), most people would regard a 8% return into infinity as a good return to get in an equity investment. This means that in order to get a 8% return, Musk needs to deliver a business that will have a ROE (return on equity) of 63% into infinity (8/12.61). The best mature business in the world can sometimes generate 20-30% ROEs https://www.forbes.com/sites/invest...ks-buffett-and-lynch-would-love/#3c235b0d7c3c But 63% for a really long-time I think its unheard of (correct me if I'm wrong). I believe the average in the US is around 10% or so. TSLA will probably be a monopoly type business that almost no one will be able to compete with, but 63% ROE?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...re-said-to-approve-2-6-billion-award-for-musk Musk might get paid as much as $50B if his plans play out. Looks like he is running the most expensive niche hedge fund on the planet (12.5x premium to the capital being invested)
To be fair he's doing a lot more work on behalf of the company than a typical hedge fund GP does for their investments, if you want to contort it into that comparison.