Hedge funds betting against Elon Musk’s Tesla have lost billions of dollars after Donald Trump’s White House win last week, according to a report.
Investment firms with short positions on the electric car maker’s stock between Election Day and Friday’s close suffered an on-paper hit of at least $5.2 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data compiled by S3 Partners.
Many funds had unwound bets against Tesla over the past four months, despite challenges for electric vehicle makers like tariffs, low consumer demand and an increasingly competitive industry, according to the Bloomberg report.
The majority of hedge funds with shorts on Tesla began backtracking their positions after Musk endorsed Trump on July 13 immediately after the first assassination attempt on the former president, according to Hazeltree data tracking more than 500 hedge funds obtained by Bloomberg.
Since Election Day, shares in Musk’s Tesla have risen about 40% – or more than $200 billion in additional market value.
Tesla’s valuation surpassed $1 trillion on Friday, pushing hedge funds to rush to reverse short bets on the company.
Only 7% of hedge funds were net short Tesla the day after the election – a far cry from the 17% shorting the stock in early July, according to Hazeltree data obtained by Bloomberg. Only 8% of hedge funds are net long Tesla.
While Tesla shares have soared 39.2% so far this year, the wider EV sector has lost more than 12% this year after a 9% decline in 2023, according to the performance of KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF as reported by Bloomberg.
Tesla’s stock has also surpassed other clean energy stocks, which tanked on Trump’s win.
Musk – the richest person in the world with a net worth of $304 billion, according to Forbes – emerged as perhaps the most prominent Trump ally throughout the president-elect’s campaign.
He donated more than $100 million to a pro-Trump PAC, rallied on Trump’s behalf and swayed Americans to vote early with a $1 million-a-day sweepstakes.
Tesla’s post-election success is due to Trump and Musk’s close relationship – the two were pictured awaiting election results together at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence – despite the expectation that Trump will enact anti-EV policies.
“Trump’s win is very negative for Tesla as an auto company,” Per Lekander, CEO of hedge fund manager Clean Energy Transition, said. In about 12 to 18 months, the Trump administration will “eliminate a lot of the subsidies which Tesla really has been winning on.”
The president-elect has committed to a pitch from Musk to create a government efficiency commission – and allow the billionaire to take the helm.
Last month, Musk said he would use a government position to eliminate regulatory blocks to approving fully autonomous EVs – one of the main challenges his company faces.
Musk has already won big on Trump’s forthcoming return to the White House. His net worth surged past the $300 billion mark on Friday on Tesla’s stock surge.
Tesla short sellers have been clobbered in the past — losing nearly $1.5 billion after Tesla reported a surprise profit in 2019, according to The Post’s reporting.
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