Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and has control over three companies; Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), X, and SpaceX. A single company faces constant threats that a CEO must always be aware of. Acting as the CEO of three means that the number of threats increases exponentially. As we look over these threats, we identified stocks that will threaten Elon Musk’s companies.
This year will be a lot like 2023 from the perspective that Elon musk’s companies will be threatened by other stocks. Whether it’s the electric vehicle industry, social media or the space race, Elon Musk is certainly going to have to deal a lot with a lot in 2024. He is only human and cannot deal with everything. That will open the door to opportunity for the firms below.
BYD (BYDDY)
BYD (OTCMKTS:BYDDY) Is one of the most important electric vehicle manufacturers globally. However, here in the United States investors don’t hear that much about the company. BYD is listed over the counter, So, it doesn’t get as much attention as U.S. listed Chinese EV manufacturers.
Make no mistake about it though, BYD is a potent competitor of Tesla. Tesla’s model Y and model 3 Vehicles accounted for more than a million vehicle sales through August of 2023. Those two vehicles held the number one and two spots by sales volume globally.
BYD’s Held the number three and four spots as well as the number nine spot. If you include BYD’s plug-in hybrid vehicles, it actually sells more EVs than does Tesla. By that count, BYD actually sold more than 2.8 million vehicles through November.
Further, BYD is the market leader in China and controls 25% of the market. That’s more than double Tesla’s market share in the country.
Apple (AAPL)
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will continue to threaten Elon Musk in his companies in 2024. Specifically, I’m referring to Twitter or X. Apple and its stock are dominant particularly in relation to apps.
That’s where a lot of the tension between Elon Musk and Apple arises. Musk is highly critical of Apple’s high commission rates on purchases, for one. He’s not alone in that regard and of course Apple continually faces monopoly accusations.
Perhaps more importantly, Musk is adamant that he desires looser content moderation standards for X. That is in stark contrast to Apple which has strict moderation standards for its apps and is known to remove apps that it decides do not meet those standards.
Headlines have considered this possibility for many months. It should be noted that there are precedents in which Apple has removed apps similar to X in the past. I’m referring to the decision of both Apple and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG,GOOGL) to remove the Parler app from their respective stores in 2020.
Expect Musk to continue to be vocal in that regard this year.
Amazon (AMZN)
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is linked with Elon Musk and SpaceX through Blue Origin, which Jeff Bezos owns. Those two firms have competed with each other over the last two decades as a race to develop space evolves. SpaceX is far ahead of Blue Origin but that’s not where the actual competition emerges.
Musk’s SpaceX will continue to face the threats from Amazon due to its Project Kuiper, not Blue Origin. However, Musk will also benefit from Project Kuiper as Amazon has hired SpaceX to conduct three of its rocket launches.
The purpose of project Kuiper is to develop satellite-based internet which is in direct competition with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite division. So, in summary, Musk is going to help Amazon put its satellite internet project into space which in turn will compete against Starlink which is part of SpaceX.
The simultaneous cooperation and competition between Amazon and SpaceX is confusing and interesting. Regardless, it remains clear that Amazon will continue to threaten Elon Musk into the future.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
