Why 'SPAC King' Palihapaitiya Is Warning Against Selling Tesla Stock

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE Chairman and SPAC king Chamath Palihapitiya said Thursday that Tesla Inc TSLA stock could double or triple in value from here. 

What Happened: The billionaire investor dished out the advice on CNBC’s Halftime show saying he could not understand “why people are so focused on selling things that work.”

Palihapitiya described Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a “guy who has consistently been one of the most important entrepreneurs in the world.”

He urged investors to get behind Musk, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, Inc AMZN, and Anthony Noto, the CEO of SoFi.

See Also: SoFi Merging With Palihapitiya-Backed IPOE SPAC

“You get behind these people who have [an] incredibly strong character, who know what they're doing who aren't going to bend to short-term profits, and are just going to drive the train for 10 or 20 years and make the world a better place,” said Palihapitiya.

The former Facebook Inc FB executive pointed to fellow venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark who has a great phrase, "when the music’s on you gotta dance."

“So these guys are dancing they are in rhythm they're in flow let them do their thing. Get behind them don't sell a share just let them create value,” advised Palihapitiya.

Why It Matters: Palihapitiya repeated his thesis that Tesla is a disruptive company whose primary value is about “deregulating energy” and is not just an automaker.

The investment guru made a “fairly large” investment in Tesla in 2016 and has said that Tesla would become a trillion-dollar company on the scale of Apple Inc AAPL.

Price Action: On Thursday, Tesla shares closed nearly 7.9% higher at $816.04 and rose 1.65% in the after-hours session to $829.50. Virgin Galactic shares rose 3.97% to $25.13 and gained 0.68% in the after-hours session on the same day.