Here's What Warren Buffett Thinks About Tesla And Elon Musk

Wayne Duggan

Sat, May 2, 2020, 3:55 PM2 min read

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett is one of the most successful and well-respected investors of all time, and Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is one of the most controversial investments on Wall Street these days.

So when Buffett recently sat down with Yahoo Finance for an interview, it’s only natural that editor-in-chief Andy Serwer would ask Buffett about Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk.

Berkshire has never invested in Tesla, but the company held $1.57 billion of General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) stock as of the end of 2019.

When Serwer asked Buffett’s opinion of Musk, Buffett chose his words carefully.

“Well, I think you're trying to bait me a little bit,” Buffett said. “He’s done some remarkable things.”

Buffett’s History With Musk

Buffett went on to say that he has met Musk in person after Musk joined the Giving Pledge several years ago. The Giving Pledge is a campaign organized by Buffett and former Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Bill Gates created to encourage the world’s wealthiest individuals to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

According to Forbes, Buffett’s net worth is approximately $74.1 billion, while Musk’s is roughly $40 billion.

“I've only met him once or twice, but yeah, I've talked with him, but not for quite a while,” Buffett said of Musk.

But when it came down to the million-dollar question of whether or not Buffett would invest in Tesla stock, the Oracle of Omaha kept his answer short and sweet.

“No,” Buffett said.

Benzinga’s Take

It’s not surprising Buffett is not a fan of Tesla given he has always taken a value investing approach to the market and shied away from high-growth stocks with high earnings multiples. Tesla investors shoudn’t take it personally given Buffett has never invested in stocks like Alphabet, Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOGL) or Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) either.

Do you agree with this take? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts.

Public domain photo via Wikimedia.

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