Tesla overtakes Facebook to become fifth most valuable U.S. company



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Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Inc., arrives at the Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Electric vehicle maker Tesla overtook Facebook in terms of market capitalization after the markets opened on Friday.

Tesla stock jumped about 5.5% at 9:03 a.m. ET to give it a market cap of $ 802.6 billion, while Facebook stock fell. Facebook now has a market capitalization of around $ 755.8 billion.

The jump makes Elon Musk’s auto company the fifth-largest company in the large-cap benchmark by counting Alphabet share classes together. It just follows Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.

While the mark is largely symbolic, it signifies Tesla’s dramatic rise in a short period of time. Tesla became the first US auto maker listed at $ 100 billion in January 2019. Just 10 months later, the company surpassed a market cap of $ 500 billion. The title gained over 700% in 2020.

The company joined the S&P 500 in December, ending a strong year of performance. Led by Musk, Tesla has had five consecutive profitable quarters. Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles during the year and is currently building new plants in Austin, Texas and Brandenburg, Germany, among other efforts to increase production and sales volume.

Meanwhile, Facebook shares have risen by around 32% throughout 2020.

Tesla shares rose this week on a very optimistic note from Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas and the announcement of a Democratic Senate majority following the run-off election in Georgia.

Among other things, President-elect Joe Biden aims to create 1 million new jobs in the national auto industry, expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the United States, and increase solar and other energies. renewables here as part of its clean energy plan. It would apparently be easier for him to push these plans forward with a Democratic majority in the Senate. Democrats sealed their majority in the Senate this week after the second round in Georgia.

Tesla’s share price hike on Thursday pushed Musk past Jeff Bezos, who was the richest person since 2017 and is currently worth around $ 184 billion. Musk started 2020 at around $ 27 billion worth and barely made it into the top 50 richest people.

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