Here's How Long It Took Tesla To Reach A $100B Market Cap

Nearly 17 years.

Tesla Inc TSLA was founded in July 2003 and didn’t strike a $100 billion market cap until Jan. 22, 2020. Within a month of marking that milestone, momentum carried its value up 66%.

Where Tesla Began

Tesla was launched on seed funding from Elon Musk, who contributed 98% of the initial capital. Musk then led a Series A round in February 2004 and a Series B round a year later. Tesla put up two more rounds of private financing before filing its IPO in June 2010, when it raised $226 million.

Just before it went public, it rolled out the 2008 Roadster — its first vehicle. Only 2,450 units sold before Tesla pivoted to the Model S, which debuted in 2012 and catalyzed the development of Tesla’s supercharger network. The Model S was the first to feature Tesla Autopilot when it launched in 2015.

See Also: Why Tesla Might Have The 'Competitive Advantage' Post-Pandemic

Going Mainstream

That year, Tesla also rolled out the Model X and began to dabble in solar products and batteries to power homes and businesses. In 2016, it acquired SolarCity and opened its Gigafactory for vehicle battery production.

The Model 3 came in 2017 and the Model Y in 2019. The latter year also saw the completion of Tesla’s China factory, which situated the automaker in the world’s most valuable auto market. The Berlin factory is scheduled to finish in 2020, around the deliveries of the Roadster relaunch and Semi. The Cybertruck will follow in 2021.

Making History

It took all of these milestones and product announcements to bring Tesla to its most impressive achievement yet. In January 2020, the company struck a value of $86.5 billion to become the most valuable American automaker ever. The previous industry record was set by Ford Motor Company F in 1999 at just $76.1 billion.

The accomplishment is all the more noteworthy given that the company has yet to record a profitable year.
At time of publication, Tesla had a market cap of $135 billion.