Tesla's market value surpassed $1 trillion on Monday, or more than the combined value of several of its rivals.
Not surprisingly, only a handful of companies are valued over the $1 trillion mark, and most of them are technology companies, such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. Tesla, too, is valued by many investors like a tech company, which may explain its high valuation.
Tesla's share price has been on a tear since the start of 2020 and closed on Monday at $1,024.86, up just over 12% on the day. The last bump was buoyed somewhat by Hertz, which is just months out of bankruptcy, announcing plans to purchase 100,000 Tesla Model 3 sedans by the end of 2022 to add to its global fleet.
The first Teslas should be in Hertz's fleet in November. Hertz called the plan “an initial order,” suggesting that the company might become a long-term customer of Tesla.
Tesla at Hertz
Interestingly, Tesla's biggest shareholder is also its CEO, Elon Musk. Thanks to the meteoric rise in Tesla's share price, Musk's net worth has ballooned to $288 billion, making his personal fortune worth more than many companies.
He has said that he wants Tesla to grow its annual sales to as many as 20 million vehicles, or double what industry giants like Toyota and Volkswagen Group currently sell. Tesla last week reported that it had delivered 241,000 vehicles for the three months ending in September, resulting in a profit for the quarter of $1.6 billion.
It hasn't all been positive news for Tesla. In addition to new competition reaching the market from both established automakers and EV startups, Tesla is facing some regulatory pressure over its Autopilot system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in August opened a formal safety probe into the driver-assist feature after a series of crashes involving emergency vehicles.
The National Transportation Safety Board's new chief, Jennifer Homendy, also sent Musk a letter on Monday questioning why Tesla was adding new features for Autopilot while it still hasn't addressed NTSB concerns about a lack of safeguards to ensure the system can't be used outside of the conditions for which it was designed for.
