Christer Gardell, a Swedish billionaire and hedge fund manager, issued a stark warning about Tesla stock and what he believes are bubbles in the stock market. The billionaire’s insights about Tesla were shared during an interview with EFN.
Tesla stock has been extremely volatile as of late amidst controversies and souring sentiments over CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly political leanings.
Alleged Tesla (TSLA) risks
Gardell did not mince words about Tesla, stating that the electric vehicle maker’s valuation could drop as much as 95% due to the “circus” surrounding its CEO.
“Tesla, especially now with the whole Musk circus going on everywhere, is probably the most expensive stock on the global stock exchanges right now. It could go down 95% – and maybe it should go down 95%,” he said in the interview.
The Swedish billionaire sees Tesla as fundamentally a car company. Thus, he does not understand why the market has given the EV maker such a high value. For context, the Tesla story has been changing in recent years, with the company growing its energy business and delving into AI and robotics.
Gardell Slams “Eternal Bubble“
Gardell believes the EV maker has become a poster child of sorts of a market that has become speculative, where share prices do not reflect true valuations anymore, as noted in a CarUp report. The hedge fund manager noted that in Tesla’s case, this “eternal bubble” should have burst long ago.
“I have commented that it should have burst over the past five years, but it still hasn’t. The valuation is incomprehensible,” he explained. The hedge fund manager, however, noted that once the crash happens, the decline would be dramatic.
“It’s always hard to say when. It could happen in a month, six months, a year, three years, or five years – it’s impossible to answer. Because there’s so much money dominating the stock market now, and they don’t care about the value of the shares, they speculate on price movements,” he said.
U.S. Stocks Overpriced, Europe Offers Value
Looking beyond Tesla, Gardell flagged broader risks in the U.S. stock market, which he described as significantly overvalued. “American stocks have received very large flows recently. If you look at the American stock market, it is very expensive, both from a purely absolute perspective and from a historical perspective,” he stated.
In contrast, Gardell touted European stocks as a more attractive option for investors. “And the difference between American stocks and European stocks has never been greater. Normally, European stocks have had a discount of 20%, now it is 40%. And that is too high,” he noted.
