Foreign Investors Catch Tesla Despite 'Musk Risk'

Despite Cheonseulra Collapse, 'Daemabulsa'
Over $100 Million Net Buying for Two Consecutive Days
Expecting Ultra-Gap in Software Market Too

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Despite the stock price decline caused by Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, unpredictable actions, individual investors investing overseas, known as 'Seohak Ants,' have started buying at low prices. This is interpreted as their belief that Tesla, which shows overwhelming sales volume in the electric vehicle market, is 'too big to fail,' and they also expect a super-gap in the software market in the future.

According to the Korea Securities Depository's securities information portal, SaveRO, on the 17th, Seohak Ants net purchased Tesla stocks worth approximately $107.94 million (about 127.5 billion KRW). This is the largest net purchase amount among all U.S. stocks. Even on the 15th, when Tesla's stock price fell below the $1,000 mark, Seohak Ants net purchased $174.07 million worth of Tesla shares.

Until early this month, except for the 9th, daily transactions of Seohak Ants up to the 12th showed a selling preference every day. During this period, Seohak Ants sold about $1.1 billion worth of Tesla shares. The reason Seohak Ants temporarily turned away from Tesla was due to CEO Musk's erratic behavior. Before the earnings announcement on the 20th of last month (local time), Musk said he should have bought Tesla stocks directed at Warren Buffett. However, recently, he asked on social media whether to sell Tesla stocks and has sold $7.8 billion worth of Tesla shares since the 8th (local time).

Despite this, Seohak Ants have turned to buying, which is interpreted as their belief in Tesla's dominant position in the electric vehicle market. According to market research firm SNE Research, Tesla's electric vehicle sales in the first half of this year reached 396,000 units, more than double that of the second-place company Shanghai GM Wuling (192,000 units). In the third quarter of this year, Tesla delivered 241,300 electric vehicles, continuing its upward trend for six consecutive quarters.

In terms of software, Tesla is also widening the gap. Starting next year, Tesla plans to apply its self-developed autonomous driving specialized supercomputer 'Dojo' to its products. It is reported that the learning speed of Dojo has increased and the completeness of autonomous driving functions has improved while operating beta services recently.

Park Yeon-ju, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, explained, "Considering the high technological entry barriers and network effects, Tesla will maintain its competitive advantage," adding, "If the results of technological innovation are confirmed from next year, market expectations are expected to be further revised upward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.