Tesla stock suffers $150 billion blow amid Musk-Trump fallout

Investors bought hundreds of billions of dollars of Tesla stock after Donald Trump was elected betting that politics were more important than profitsIn three hours on Thursday they learned yet again how dangerous that gamble could beShares of Elon Musks electric vehicle maker plunged more than 1437 in a stunning wipeout as investors dumped holdings amid a bitter war of words between the president and the worldrsquos richest man By the end of the trading day 150 billion of Teslarsquos value had been erased mdash more than what it would take to buy all the shares of Starbucks and hundreds of other big publicly traded US companiesIn afterhours trading Tesla shares rose 0837The disagreement started over the presidentrsquos budget bill then quickly turned nasty After Musk said that Trump wouldnrsquot have gotten elected without his help Trump implied that he may turn the federal government against his companies including Tesla and SpaceXldquoThe easiest way to save money in our Budget Billions and Billions of Dollars is to terminate Elonrsquos Governmental Subsidies and Contractsrdquo Trump wrote on his social messaging service Truth Social ldquoI was always surprised that Biden didnrsquot do itrdquoThe drop on Thursday partially reversed a big runup in the eight weeks since Musk confirmed that Tesla would be testing an autonomous driverless lsquorobotaxirsquo service in Austin Texas this monthInvestors fear Trump might not be in such a rush to usher in a future of selfdriving cars in the US and that could slam Tesla So much of its real business mdash selling electric cars mdash is struggling now and so it needs the promise of a new age of driverless cars to be realized and fastldquoThe whole goal of robotaxis is to have them in 20 or 25 cities next yearrdquo said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives one of Teslarsquos biggest fans but now worried ldquoIf you start to heighten the regulatory environment that could delay that pathrdquoHe added ldquoThere is a fear that Trump is not going to play Mr Nice GuyrdquoTrumprsquos threat to cut government contracts seems targeted more to another of Muskrsquos businesses mdash SpaceX mdash than his car company The privately held rocket company has received billions of dollars for sending astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station providing launches and doing other work for NASA The company is currently racing to develop a mega rocket for the space agency to send astronauts to the moon next yearA subsidiary of SpaceX the satellite internet company Starlink appears to also have benefited from Muskrsquos onceclose relationship with the presidentOn a trip with Trump to the Middle East last month Musk announced that Saudi Arabia had approved Starlink for aviation and maritime use Though its not clear how much politics has played a role a string of other recent deals in Bangladesh Pakistan India and elsewhere has come as Trump has threatened tariffs and sent diplomats scrambling to please the presidentOne measure of SpaceXrsquos success a private financing round followed by a private sale of shares in recent months reportedly valued it at 350 billion up from an estimated 210 billion a year agoNow all that is possibly in danger Tesla shares got even a bigger lift from Muskrsquos close relationship with Trump initially at leastAfter the presidential election in November investors rushed into the stock adding more than 450 billion to its value in a few weeks The belief was that the company would see big riches as Trump eased regulatory oversight of Tesla They also were betting that the new administration would embrace Muskrsquos plans for millions of cars on US roads without drivers behind the wheelAfter hitting an alltime high on December 17 the shares retreated as Muskrsquos time as head of a government costcutting group led to boycotts and a hit to Teslarsquos reputation Theyrsquove recently popped higher again after Musk vowed to focus more on Tesla and its upcoming driverless taxi launchNow investors arenrsquot so sure mdash a worry that has translated into big paper losses in Tesla stock held by Musk personally down 20 billion for the dayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever