In a new video, legendary billionaire investor Ron Baron, founder, CEO, and portfolio manager of Baron Capital, discussed his investments in Elon Musk's companies. Baron has been a long-time backer of Elon Musk, becoming a shareholder of SpaceX in 2017.
**Ron Baron's Investment Track Record:**
* His company, Baron Capital, started in 1982 with $10 million under management, grew to $100 million in 1992, and reached $69 billion in June.
* Baron Capital has made clients $71 billion in profits, effectively turning $10 million into $140 billion (AUM plus profits paid out).
* Of the $71 billion in profits, $30 billion came from Elon Musk's companies, and $40 billion from other investments.
* The Baron Partners Fund has been the number one mutual fund in the United States since 2003.
* Ron's personal net worth was minus $15,000 in 1970.
**Baron Capital's Holdings (as of end of June):**
* **SpaceX:** $25 billion worth of "short shares" (as stated in transcript), which is $3 billion more than Nvidia has.
* **Tesla:** $5 billion.
* These two positions combine for over $30 billion and are the number one and two largest holdings for Baron Capital.
* The next 13 stocks (including Hyatt, MCSI, Spotify, Charles Schwab) combined total only about $15.5 billion, leading to Baron being described as an "Elon Musk proxy."
**Ron Baron's Personal Holdings:**
* $1.5 billion in Tesla.
* $1.8 billion in Baron mutual funds.
* $5 billion in SpaceX.
* SpaceX stock alone accounts for about 60% of his disclosed personal holdings.
**Tesla Discussion:**
* Ron shared an anecdote about his special Model S (one of 250 made, costing twice as much as regular ones), which he called his "favorite car."
* He recounted an experience in East Hampton where his Tesla, using self-driving (FSD), navigated to breakfast, stopped for a duck and six ducklings crossing the road, and parked itself. He found it "unbelievable" and noted that the car "sees more than you do" at night.
* He believes FSD will make other cars seem like "a horse and buggy" in comparison and children won't need to learn to drive, reducing parental worry.
* Contrary to predictions of other automakers eroding Tesla's market share, Tesla's market share is increasing in the United States, Europe, and globally.
* He noted that many legacy automakers (e.g., GM) have "dipped their toes in the water," "talked a lot of shit," then "abandoning their plans scaling back and just giving the fuck up," or "try to do shortcuts" regarding EVs.
* Ron believes that "the time to buy the [Tesla] stock is now" because FSD is "catching on" and will become "bigger and bigger."
* There are 1.4 million people currently on this driving (FSD), and Tesla is seeing a 55% overall increase in new buyers annually.
* 55% of new buyers are opting for the self-drive feature.
* While he thinks it's time for others to buy, he stated his current exposure of $1.5 billion personally and $1.8 billion in mutual funds is "enough."
**Tesla/SpaceX Merger Speculation:**
* The host raised the idea of Elon Musk having SpaceX acquire Tesla, stating it's "definitely going to be proposed" and "not a matter of if but when." Elon Musk reportedly did not "knock the idea down" when asked in a recent podcast and at the All-In Summit.
* Ron Baron told Elon Musk his reasons for and against the merger but stated he would support "whatever you decide is better." He declined to elaborate on his specific reasons.
**Sponsorship:**
* AG1 has been part of Ron's daily health protocol for half a decade, providing vitamins, minerals, and supporting energy, digestion, immune function, prebiotics, and probiotics.