Tesla’s shares first traded publicly on the NASDAQ in 2010.
Tesla held its initial public offering on June 29, 2010, selling shares at 17 dollars each. The company raised about 226.1 million dollars in the offering, making Tesla the first American car company to go public since Ford’s 1956 offering.
An initial public offering, or IPO, allows a private company to sell shares to public investors on a stock exchange. Tesla’s listing provided capital during a period when it was developing vehicles, expanding production, and building its charging and service infrastructure.
Tesla later became one of the most valuable publicly traded automakers, but its market value and share price have changed substantially over time. Stock splits change the number of shares and per-share price without changing the company’s underlying value at the moment of the split.