Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, on Friday tweeted that his electric vehicle company could soon be larger than Apple Inc.
But he then deleted the tweet after it was posted. Some users took a screenshot of the CEO’s deleted tweet and re-posted it.
In response to a follower’s Twitter comment, Musk said last week that he thinks “there’s a >0% chance Tesla could be the biggest company,” adding that “probably within a few months.”
Twitter comment didn’t sit well with regulators
It was unclear whether Musk was asked to delete the tweet or thought it wasn’t the right time to make public such a declaration.
Currently, Tesla’s market valuation hovers around 650 billion dollars, and if Apple had taken a significant stake in the EV maker, Apple would’ve made a spectacular return on their investment.
This isn’t the first time that the tech mogul — which has almost 50 million Twitter followers — has posted a comment that has gone down well with investors and regulators.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently ordered Tesla to tell Musk to remove an “unlawful tweet” he posted in 2018.
Not that easy
Musk’s controversial Twitter comment was in response to heightened efforts by employees to establish a correlation with the United Auto Workers at Tesla’s Fremont factory.
“Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tomorrow if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?” Benzinga quoted Musk as saying in a tweet.
Meanwhile, in order for Musk and Tesla to compete with Apple and beat it to become the biggest company in terms of market cap, Tesla’s stock price will need to soar three times. And that is considering Apple’s stock price remains unchanged in the meantime.
Image courtesy of Scientia Plus/YouTube