I think the difference between Tesla and Yahoo is that Tesla actually produces a product and not just any product, but a product in extremely high demand using technology that their competitors haven’t come close to matching yet. Everything will be fine.
Berkshire Hathaway has over 10 times the revenue and profits yet Tesla just passed them.
Even under the most astronomical optimistic growth for 15 to 20 years Tesla can't reach a point to justify that market cap. Tesla competitors are within just a few years of catching up. Tesla also still isn't profitable without selling ever dwindling credits. I'm not saying bad company, but not worth a tenth of this price even if they dominated car market.
Few points here. Plenty of companies derive part of their profit margin from subsidies. Everything from sugar to oil is heavily subsidized. Seems odd to single Tesla out in this regard, especially considering ZEV credits are not a taxpayer funded subsidy. The ZEV credits are earned through or as a direct result of Tesla’s core business (EVs). They are not a simple transfer of wealth from taxpayers like other industries receive. Tesla’s so called competitors are forced to pay Tesla for these credits exactly because they are failing to create compelling EVs of their own in any significant quantity. Secondly, if you take away the ZEV credits, then it’s only fair to also take out Musk’s stock compensation from last quarter. Remove both, and Tesla is profitable even without ZEV credits last quarter. If you are going to discard EV credits because they are transient, then only fair to also discard Musk’s one-off compensation payment as well. Lastly, the Tesla detractors always want to ignore that Tesla has only recently become profitable because they have and continue to plug billions back into the business to fuel their rapid, capital intensive growth. If Teals stopped building out superchargers, new factories and funding research and development they would be very profitable every quarter going forward. As a Tesla stock holder I’m glad Tesla is plugging profits back into the company to fuel future growth and capture market share.
Which brings me to the next point, you say the competition is coming in “a few years”, but there is no evidence to support this. No ICE manufacturer is currently building multiple plants to manufacture EV batteries and vehicles at mass scale like Tesla. No ICE manufacturer is building out supercharger networks across North America, Europe and China like Tesla. No ICE company has even released specs for a vehicle that competes with current Tesla vehicles on range, price, performance, AND charging speeds. All of which ignores the fact that while these ICE companies try to catch up with today’s Tesla vehicles, Tesla continues to innovate and provide a moving target. The "Tesla Killers" have been promised for a decade or more now, and if anything, Tesla’s moat has widened.
The ICE majors have an impossible task. They need to simultaneously plug billions into developing and producing new EVs at scale, while competing against their own existing ICE product lines and satisfying current share holders demand for quarterly profits. No wonder no major has produced anything more than compliance vehicles at minimal scale (10s of thousands) with the possible exception of Nissan (LEAF). How can they? For them to make the necessary investments to retool their manufacturing line, design new EVs from the ground up, build out charging infrastructure, procure battery supply, etc., they would have to sell their boards and share holders on several consecutive unprofitable quarters and suspension of dividend payments. Good luck! You can’t serve two masters. Half the current ICE manufacturers will not survive this transition to electric.