> Analysts have long suspected that Tesla's considerable valuation vastly exceeded its actual worth.<p>Perhaps the same analysts have long suspected that the moon orbits the earth.<p>Musk has run Tesla as a pump 'n' dump and personal ATM for years, in plain sight, with "analysts" and investors playing along because they know they can get out before Musk tanks the company. Let's not pretend anyone got fooled or invested in Tesla and propped up the ridiculous valuation out of hopeful dreams of a better future.
Musk did it because, at first, it was brilliant. His domestic competitors were feckless. Mostly they still are. Tesla's high valuation made it possible to leap from being a specialty car maker to being a major manufacturer. His competitors have to spend billions on ads while Tesla had a referral program copied from the SaaS software industry. It was all pretty great until it wasn't.