Musk Is Truly the Greatest Showman on Earth

Forget P.T. Barnum — Elon Musk is the greatest showman on Earth.

In case you harbored any doubts, yesterday’s earnings call with Tesla proved it. 

Now, before you start flooding my email with the vitriolic hate that comes from Musk’s loyal fans, just hear me out for a minute… because underneath the masterful market manipulation Musk is capable of is an incredibly smart person. 

To call him a manipulator isn’t a pejorative in the slightest. Few individuals alive today can garner the kind of free publicity that Musk has generated over the last decade. 

If there’s one thing that haters and fanboys alike can agree on, it's that this show is quite entertaining. 

Judging from how much his lawyer was sweating the moment Musk began to speak, you knew yesterday's show would be worth listening to.

From mild to wild, Musk delivered it all.

There was a bit of something for everyone, too. 

Anyone with a dime invested in Tesla wants to hear about record revenues of $25 billion or that the Model Y became the bestselling vehicle of any kind globally during the first quarter of 2023. 

If you’re a shareholder, your ears certainly perked up a bit when Musk mentioned that Tesla’s global supercharging network reached 50,000 connectors and over 5,000 locations, and even more so when you first learned that major automakers like Ford, GM, and Mercedes have signed up to gain access to Tesla's network. 

I know this second point made a few hearts flutter. Anyone who's been following the EV revolution take shape over the last eight years understands that one of the biggest challenges of mass EV adoption is the lack of a charging infrastructure. 

But the autistic Tony Stark also went on some incredibly fantastical tangents during the call. 

My personal favorite was when he said:

Like, I see a really — you know, see a path to 10x, I mean. But I call it a 5x increase in the value of the company, maybe a 10x. And — but the — where things go along the way, the trials and tribulations and the mood of the — the mood of the markets, one cannot predict. And so, you know, I mean, the old adage of buy and hold.

Yesterday, Tesla was trading with a market cap of around $842 billion. 

Musk's projection suggests Tesla will one day be trading with a $9 trillion market cap.

Buy and hold indeed.

But as extraordinary as that would be for his shareholders, there are moves that Musk is making that are unquestionably brilliant. 

And for that, we have to talk a little about lithium. 

Lithium, Lithium Everywhere

Lithium as a commodity today is quite fascinating. 

With approximately 20 milligrams of lithium per kilogram of the Earth’s crust, lithium is the 25th-most abundant element on the planet. 

Yet there’s a huge catch here…

Lithium can be found everywhere, but it’s most often found in very low concentrations. 

As it is today, there are only two ways to get it commercially — hard rock mining or brine extraction. The former is an intensive process that involves surface mining techniques, while the latter involves a long process of evaporation that can take up to a year and a half. 

That’s it. 

I know there’s a lot of hype currently surrounding direct lithium extraction (DLE), but keep in mind that DLE technology hasn’t yet been proven on a commercial scale — we’re years away from that, at minimum. 

However, it’s not lithium production that Tesla shareholders should be concerned about. 

Getting lithium out of the ground is one thing, but making use of it in batteries is an entirely different matter. 

And THAT is where Elon Musk goes from entertainer to visionary. 

When China dominates the world’s lithium refining, you can see how U.S. EV-makers can run into some trouble. The U.S. is already engaged in a semiconductor war with China after the Biden administration put export controls on China’s semiconductor industry last year. 

China’s most recent retaliation came when it placed its own export restrictions on gallium and germanium — key materials in the use of computer chips and a few other products. 

So how long do you think it’ll be until things escalate into the world of lithium?

That’s why Musk is building his own lithium refinery along the U.S. Gulf Coast. 

Granted, this project could take a long time to materialize, but what if there was another source of battery-grade lithium (as well as cobalt and nickel) that we could access without having to learn Mandarin?

The only thing that would make things even better is if these projects were already producing battery-grade lithium on a commercial scale.

That alone would offer investors a much more realistic 10x than Tesla at its current valuation, wouldn’t it?

Well, this is a pure lithium play that you HAVE to see for yourself.

Until next time,

Keith Kohl

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A true insider in the technology and energy markets, Keith’s research has helped everyday investors capitalize from the rapid adoption of new technology trends and energy transitions. Keith connects with hundreds of thousands of readers as the Managing Editor of Energy & Capital, as well as the investment director of Angel Publishing’s Energy Investor and Technology and Opportunity.

For nearly two decades, Keith has been providing in-depth coverage of the hottest investment trends before they go mainstream — from the shale oil and gas boom in the United States to the red-hot EV revolution currently underway. Keith and his readers have banked hundreds of winning trades on the 5G rollout and on key advancements in robotics and AI technology.

Keith’s keen trading acumen and investment research also extend all the way into the complex biotech sector, where he and his readers take advantage of the newest and most groundbreaking medical therapies being developed by nearly 1,000 biotech companies. His network includes hundreds of experts, from M.D.s and Ph.D.s to lab scientists grinding out the latest medical technology and treatments. You can join his vast investment community and target the most profitable biotech stocks in Keith’s Topline Trader advisory newsletter.