Tesla becomes the most valuable automobile company on the planet

Elon Musk’s electric car business exceeds the value of almost every company in the S&P 500, including some iconic American companies.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday to a new record high of above $1,120 a share. At that price, Tesla’s market cap is nearly $210 billion.

That makes Tesla the most valuable auto company on the planet, ahead of Toyota (TM). Tesla has also passed the market caps of Dow components Coca Cola (KO), Disney (DIS), Cisco (CSCO), Merck (MRK) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).

Now there are only 19 companies in the S&P 500 worth more than Tesla. One of them is CNN owner AT&T (T). Tesla is also worth more than PayPal (PYPL) — a company that was formed from the merger of another payments company co-founded by Musk.

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Tesla isn’t consistently profitable enough to join the S&P 500. But it may be closing in on that milestone. Optimism about electric vehicles isn’t limited to Tesla. Shares of electric truck maker Nikola have soared since the company went public in June through a merger with an existing publicly-traded blank check company. 

Nikola is now worth nearly $25 billion, more than Ford (F). And the stock of electric battery maker Workhorse (WKHS), which has a stake in private startup Lordstown Motors, has more doubled in just the past week.