Tesla became the first publicly traded automaker valued above US$500 billion.
Tesla passed the US$500 billion market-capitalization threshold in 2020 as its share price climbed sharply. Investors were responding to rapid growth in electric-vehicle deliveries, expanding production capacity, and expectations that battery-powered vehicles would take a larger share of the global automobile market.
The figure is a stock-market valuation, calculated by multiplying the company’s share price by its shares outstanding. It is therefore different from annual vehicle sales, company revenue, or the value of factories and other assets. A company can have a high market capitalization even while its sales volume is smaller than that of established automakers.
Tesla’s valuation also reflected expectations about software, batteries, charging infrastructure, and future manufacturing. Traditional manufacturers such as Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors remained much larger by many operating measures. The milestone was about public-market value, not a claim that Tesla was the world’s largest automaker by production.