Billionaire investor Ron Baron, a longtime Tesla bull and shareholder, believes the electric vehicle company could reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion within a decade, and CEO Elon Musk has said he has an even bigger longer-term figure in mind. “Tesla, I think, is going to be worth $3 or $4 billion — $5 billion in 10 years, based on the business plan that I know. Then Elon thinks it’s going to be worth $30 billion in the longer term,” Baron said. CNBC’s ” Squawk Box ” on Friday. At $3.65 trillion, Nvidia had the largest U.S. market capitalization at Thursday’s market close, surpassing Apple and Microsoft, according to FactSet data. Tesla closed Thursday with a market cap of $1.12 trillion. Baron first invested $400 million in Tesla between 2014 and 2016, and said the initial bet has earned $6 billion so far while the EV company gained mainstream acceptance. Tesla represents 10% of Baron’s total portfolio in various funds. TSLA ALL Mountain Tesla Tesla is seen as a big beneficiary of Trump administration policies as Musk has been a prominent backer and donor to the president-elect this year. Musk was recently assigned a leading role by Trump, heading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Tesla shares have risen about 25% in November alone in a post-election rally to return to the $1 trillion market. Barone said he will hold Tesla stock for the long term. “I will not sell the shares under any circumstances. If they are too big, I will have to cut them a bit, but no, I do not intend to leave,” he said. The Baron Capital chair has also built its case for Tesla around the Optimus humanoid robot vision it is now developing. At a “We, Robot” event last month, Musk said Tesla has made progress on the Optimus and will eventually cost $20,000 to $30,000 to “be a teacher, take care of the kids, walk the dog, mow the lawn.” he had take groceries… It’ll do everything you think of.” “The idea is that these robots… he thinks it’s going to be the biggest business ever,” Baron said. “He says everybody’s going to have robots.”
