Tesla could soar another 300% as the company expands its tech outside the auto industry, a prominent VC investor says
- Tesla could soar over 300% to reach $2,500 in the next three years, the venture capitalist and veteran tech analyst Gene Munster told CNBC on Monday.
- The Loup Ventures cofounder said Tesla would use its current technology to expand beyond the auto industry into areas like insurance and HVAC.
- “They’re going to evolve outside of cars longer-term,” Munster added.
- Shares of Tesla reached an all-time high of $615 shortly after the opening bell on Monday.
Tesla could soar over 300%, to $2,500, in the next three years, the venture capitalist and veteran tech analyst Gene Munster told CNBC on Monday.
A move like that would push Tesla’s market capitalization, now $567 billion, to over $2 trillion. Only one other US-listed company – Apple – has passed that number.
The Loup Ventures cofounder said Tesla would evolve over the next few years to become more than just a car company.
“They’re really going to take their tech that they’re defining and pioneering with auto and applying it to new markets,” he said.
Munster discussed Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments that the company might enter the insurance business or the HVAC space.
” Elon has recently said that there’s 30% to 40% of the value of the car could be in insurance,” Munster said. “What that means is that they can start offering their own insurance and improve margins. That’s high-margin revenue. Not to mention everything they’re doing around over-the-air updates with autonomy and what they can even do around HVAC.”
Munster also pointed to flying taxis as another frontier Tesla could expand to that could propel its stock price. “I would not invest in Tesla based on that, but the concept that this company is going to continue to evolve and be a tech leader in the next decade, I’m on board with that,” he said.
Munster added that the “ship has sailed” for traditional auto companies to compete with Tesla. He said Volkswagen and General Motors were in the best positions “to even remotely compete” with the electric-vehicle maker.
“But really there’s no substance competition – again, they’re going to evolve outside of cars longer-term,” he said of Tesla.
The venture capitalist, who spent over 20 years as a tech analyst on Wall Street, said Apple could be the biggest company to compete with Tesla over the longer term.
“Whatever their ambitions are in vehicles – I mean, it’s been really quiet there, I’m not expecting anything in the near term – but that, as a Tesla investor, that would be the one announcement that would cause me to step back and rethink things,” Munster said.
Shares of Tesla reached an all-time high of $615 shortly after the opening bell on Monday.