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Tesla is a "generally misvalued" company as people continue to misunderstand its "fundamentally disruptive" technology and business model, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
"Tesla continues to be underestimated," the Social Capital CEO said. "I think it is generally misvalued, and I think the people that are trying to compete with them are not the people they are competing with."
He stressed that Tesla is "no longer about the car business" and the purpose of the business is to deregulate energy. He pointed out that we need to pay attention to the fact that the company manufactures batteries and energy storage systems, and here we are talking about disrupting utilities.
"The value of this business is about deregulating energy. That's about batteries and battery storage, and it's about disrupting utilities.
"It is about the combination of hardware and software that will give all of us individuals the ability to be energy independent, and I think that is a fundamentally disruptive thing."
The latest developments in battery technology presented at Battery Day were truly significant, Palihapitiya said.
“The innovations in the cathode, the innovations at the anode, the innovations in the packaging of batteries… what I can tell you is it was a meaningful leap and innovation these guys presented.
"I'm an investor and an owner of rare earth that feeds this supply chain of electrification."
Palihapitiya said that people had thought for years that the auto giants would overtake Tesla, yet only a handful of the electric vehicles they created found success in the market. Basically, the car companies were messing around. Meanwhile, Tesla was delivering more and more electric vehicles.
“The reality is these guys [Tesla] are shipping more and more cars every quarter,” Palihapitiya said. "There is more and more consumer demand, and they have a simplified platform that allows them to scale up at better unit margins than anyone else in the auto industry."
The Social Capital CEO also stated that Tesla is "going to be one of the most valuable companies in the world."
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
