Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, Disney and Coke

BUSINESS

Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, Disney and Coke

Paul R. La Monica

CNN Digital

Published Wednesday, July 1, 2020 3:12PM EDT

Vehicles are seen parked at the Tesla car plant Monday, May 11, 2020, in Fremont, Calif. The parking lot was nearly full at Tesla's California electric car factory Monday, an indication that the company could be resuming production in defiance of an order from county health authorities. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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Elon Musk's electric car business exceeds the value of almost every company in the S&P 500, including some iconic American companies.

Shares of Tesla were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday to a new record high of above $1,120 a share. At that price, Tesla's market cap is nearly $210 billion.

That makes Tesla the most valuable auto company on the planet, ahead of Toyota. Tesla has also passed the market caps of Dow components Coca-Cola, Disney, Cisco, Merck and Exxon Mobil.

Now there are only 19 companies in the S&P 500 worth more than Tesla. One of them is CNN owner AT&T. Tesla is also worth more than PayPal -- a company that was formed from the merger of another payments company co-founded by Musk.

Tesla isn't consistently profitable enough to join the S&P 500. But it may be closing in on that milestone.

Optimism about electric vehicles isn't limited to Tesla.

Shares of electric truck maker Nikola have soared since the company went public in June through a merger with an existing publicly traded blank check company. Nikola is now worth nearly $25 billion, more than Ford.

And the stock of electric battery maker Workhorse, which has a stake in private startup Lordstown Motors, has more doubled in just the past week.