By the end of October 2021, a guy worth over $300 billion was seen by the globe for the first time in history. This individual is Elon Musk. Elon Musk's electric car company, Tesla, saw a large increase in its shares, which contributed to the arrival of his fortune to an unprecedented degree. What some people do not know is that this company was on the verge of bankruptcy one day, and Elon Musk could have lost his fortune because of it.
“At that time, I spent the last of my money on Tesla that came from selling my stake in PayPal. At that time, I didn’t even have a house or anything else to sell.”
(Elon Musk comments on the situation of Tesla after the global financial crisis)
Financial crises that almost caused the company to go bankrupt:
Following the 2008 financial crisis, Tesla was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. As a result, Elon Musk chose to delay the release of his new Tesla model. He also decreased 25% of the company's workers, but this was insufficient. Musk asked for help for the first time to secure $40 million to keep Tesla from going bankrupt during what he called the "darkest hour" in the company's existence. Subsequently, Tesla managed to secure a substantial $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy. With the help of this funding, the business was able to avoid certain bankruptcy. In 2009, Elon Musk revealed at a conference the new Tesla vehicle, dubbed the "Model S," which he had previously delayed. With the help of this funding, the business was able to avoid certain bankruptcy. In 2009, Elon Musk revealed at a conference the new Tesla vehicle, dubbed the "Model S," which he had previously delayed.
In 2020, Elon Musk told CNN that his company was on the verge of bankruptcy again in 2018. The period between mid-2017 and mid-2019 was very stressful and caused severe pressure. As losses grew, Tesla found itself in a severe financial pinch and found it difficult to reach its multiple Model 3 production targets. Though Musk made light of the firm's impending bankruptcy in a tweet on April Fools' Day of 2018, he had not previously revealed that the company was set to declare bankruptcy.
Overcoming problems and moving forward:
By 2020, Tesla had recorded consistent record earnings, an industry-leading profit margin, and robust cash flows. Tesla's shares increased by more than 400% in the same year.
The success achieved by the company made hundreds of thousands of customers and investors ignore the problems the company experienced, which made them spend a lot of money on Tesla cars. The position of power that the company reached in 2020 had not been reached before. At the end of January 2020, Tesla’s market value reached $140 billion, which represents the largest value in the history of the automobile industry in the United States of America and the second most valuable automobile manufacturing company in the world after Toyota.