“Now is the bottom,” Baron said during an interview with Squawk Box on CNBC earlier today.

Baron has been one of the biggest winners in terms of Tesla stock ownership, seeing his portfolio increase by multitudes over the past several years and holding over $1.5 billion in shares at one point.

However, as the stock has felt some pressure over the past year and a half, being up only 1 percent compared to a year ago and down 32 percent since the beginning of 2024, Baron believes the only way to go now is up.

“It’s going to go up huge,” Baron said. When he was asked when this would happen, his answer was simple: “Now.”

As Tesla is trading at around $166 on Thursday morning during early trading hours, it has gone up the past two days, fending off bearish tones that mention slowing demand, increasing vehicle inventories, and a loss of market share in regions like China and Europe.

Tesla’s Q1 2024 Earnings Call seemed to put some rest to the questions that lie before it. When will a dedicated Robotaxi be released? How far is Tesla from solving Full Self-Driving? How will Tesla compete with automakers that have released affordable models that are comparable to their best-sellers that are not as competitively priced?

Robotaxi and Solving FSD

Tesla announced recently that it would unveil a dedicated Robotaxi vehicle on August 8. Based on an experience he recently had with the company in California, Baron believes the Robotaxi will be capable of driving people around without any human intervention.

He requested to see Steve Jobs’ house from Tesla’s Hawthorne Design Studio in Los Angeles. He claims that several others joined him in the car, and the vehicle drove him to Jobs’ former residence without any human intervention, handling things like a pedestrian waving the vehicle on and other challenging scenarios.

He believes Robotaxi will be coming soon.

Affordable Models

Tesla said in its Q1 2024 Shareholder Deck that it had ultimately decided to launch a new, updated vehicle lineup that will help accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously planned timelines, which hinted toward a late 2025 production start.

Including a blend of both the existing and next-generation platforms, the new vehicle lineup will feature affordable models and will be able to be manufactured on existing production lines.

Tesla updates future vehicle lineup — and it will arrive sooner than expected

“This update may result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected,” Tesla wrote, “but enables us to prudently grow our vehicle volumes in a more capex efficient manner during uncertain times.”

Baron’s Other Thoughts

Baron kept the same tone regarding selling Tesla shares as he has for years: none are going anywhere.

He believes the stock will increase substantially, and the catalysts of Robotaxi and Full Self-Driving will be the main drivers of an increase in valuation for Tesla, aligning with the idea that the company is not an automaker and should be looked at in terms of software.

Today’s full video of Ron Baron talking $TSLA

“It’s gonna go up huge. Now is the bottom.” pic.twitter.com/FshULylNy6

— Christopher Dungeon (@ChrisDungeon) April 25, 2024

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Ron Baron has made, at the peak of Tesla’s surge on Wall Street, between $5 billion and $5.5 billion on his investment in Tesla, which first started in 2014 and resulted in $400 million in initial investments. Baron expects to make five times his money within the next 7-8 years, he said in an exclusive interview with MarketWatch.

A fan of Musk and his “mission-driven” personality, which resulted in a massive switch in the world’s opinions on electric cars, Baron knew there was a “big upside” because of the Tesla CEO’s brilliance. His sentiment goes further than just Tesla, as Baron’s second-largest holding is SpaceX, a company that is still privately listed to the most exclusive of investors.

SpaceX received an investment from Baron in 2017, and since then, his firm has put in roughly $700 million in funds. That has resulted in roughly $1 billion in gains, Baron said.

“In the case of SpaceX, we think that over the next three years, it’s likely they will go public with Starlink…and we think that we’re going to make double in the company by then,” Baron said. “We think that the business, which is now valued at $150 billion, we think at that time will be worth $250 to $300 billion…by 2030, it is likely they will be worth somewhere around $500 billion or $600 billion. In the 2030s, that when I expect we’ll make another ten times our money.”

Tesla bull Ron Baron explains the biggest short-term risk for TSLA stock

Baron believes that the advantages of Tesla, which include the eventual completion of the Full Self-Driving suite and Robotaxi fleet, is also evident in SpaceX. In his interview, Ron Baron stated that SpaceX’s revolutionary business includes reusable rockets, something nobody else is doing. There are parallels in what Tesla is doing with its planned Robotaxi program, which will allow owners to make money off their cars using an initial investment in FSD.

There are other companies that operate autonomous driving fleets, and Cruise, after shutting down operations temporarily last week, was likely the most notable.

Additionally, the strength of Starlink is something that is very appealing to an investor. Baron noted the outrageous expense of getting internet to houses in the mountains of Nevada, which costs a whopping $53,000 per residence. Instead, people can use a Starlink terminal to access the satellites that have already been launched to gain access to high-speed internet.

Baron’s full interview with MarketWatch is available below:

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Baron said in an interview on Tuesday with CNBC that he was promised to make “two to three times” his money when he invested another $100 million in Twitter after Musk took the company private following his acquisition in late 2022. His decision was influenced by several things: his portfolio’s past success based on Musk’s ventures, Musk’s marketing techniques, and a promise that basically showed the business was poorly run under previous management.

“I don’t want to talk more about Twitter, because I’m not the expert on it yet, but he explained when we made our investment that he saw that there was a lot of cost there, it was incredibly poorly run,” Baron said.

Now that Musk believes Twitter is financially more stable than ever before, based on a variety of newly-implemented changes since his tenure as CEO began. The changes have effectively turned Twitter from a money-shedding operation to “trending to breakeven.”

Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy, while fulfilling essential Tesla & SpaceX duties. Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone.

Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023

Baron never had any disbelief in Musk. “He’s the best-known man in the world, I guess.”

Baron has always supported Musk’s ventures, especially Tesla and SpaceX. His personal shares have always remained off limits, and he has not sold. However, his firm Baron Capital sold 1.8 million shares in March 2021, but only because “it became a very large percentage of some accounts.”

Tesla bull Ron Baron reveals $100M SpaceX investment, sees 3-5x return on TSLA

The thesis for investing his money with Twitter is relatively the same, and it has a lot to do with the fact that Musk’s name is perhaps the best marketing strategy money cannot buy.

Musk has never taken a traditional approach in terms of his marketing strategy. While car companies use millions upon millions of dollars of budgetary spending to promote their vehicles through television and internet advertisements, Musk’s Tesla has spent nothing on marketing. This is where Baron believes he holds a distinct advantage, as Musk’s name alone does the marketing for his companies.

“Everyone else spends $1,000 to market a car, he spends nothing, because everyone knows Twitter. He spends nothing because everyone knows who he is.”

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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While some Tesla bulls have continued to solidify themselves as ultimate believers in the automaker’s future, establishing distinct and robust predictions for the stock, the near-term is much different. Some bulls are remaining supportive of Musk through his venture with Twitter, while other analysts who have been proponents of investors putting their money with Tesla are backtracking.

Ron Baron of Baron Capital is one bull whose overall outlook on Tesla stock has changed very little. Baron has supported Tesla and Musk’s vision for several years, with Baron Capital being one of the biggest Tesla bulls on Wall Street. Ron Baron is also a Tesla shareholder in his own right. While his firm was forced to sell Tesla shares several years ago amid its baffling climb to a trillion-dollar valuation to keep diversification level, he refuses to sell any personally held stock.

Recently, Baron sat down with Musk to dissect his mind as the Twitter saga continued on. Afterward, he gave an interview with Forbes, where he solidified his position on Tesla. “In ten years, Tesla will be the largest and most profitable company in the world,” he said. Baron does not only believe in Tesla but also Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX, which is privatized but available for select investors to buy. He said he scoops up more shares anytime they’re available.

Baron’s outlook on Tesla’s 50 percent drop from last year is that it is just another buying opportunity for investors. Just because Tesla is down significantly this year, it is not an anomaly. “Stocks are dirt cheap on an absolute basis,” he said.

Other analysts are not as encouraged by recent developments. Wedbush’s Dan Ives recently removed Tesla from the firm’s “Best Ideas” list following a downturn in the stock’s short-term outlook. Long-term, Ives still believes the Tesla story remains unchanged, which aligns with most Tesla bulls’ mentality. However, he is beginning to worry about brand deterioration as a result of Musk’s Twitter deal and believes the entire show has gotten worse.

“Ultimately, this circus show has not gotten better. It’s gotten worse since Musk took over Twitter. We’ve seen that the last few weeks and my issue is more about brand deterioration for Tesla.” he said to CNN. “Musk is so associated with Tesla, with the premium that the stock gets. That’s been a bit of our concern. Also, just his attention, it’s going to be a tough juggling act here.”

Ives recently called Twitter a “money pit” and a black eye for Tesla stock. Musk is undoubtedly a big part of the Tesla brand. If you were to walk up to ten people on the street and ask them the CEOs of Tesla, Ford, and GM, many would likely be able to say Elon Musk, but very few would know Jim Farley and Mary Barra if they are not interested in the automotive sector.

Tesla stock remains in a strange predicament due to Musk’s Twitter ordeal. The stock is down 1.6 percent on the day and over 18 percent in the past 30 days. Nevertheless, the long-term story of Tesla seems to be unchanged for many analysts. It is just the near term where industry professionals are struggling to agree.

Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.

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