Morgan Freeman’s investment in Tesla stock back in 2016 could have turned into a financial windfall, assuming he held onto his shares. The Academy Award-winning actor and Hollywood legend once expressed admiration for Tesla CEO Elon Musk and revealed that he owned shares in the electric vehicle company.
Morgan & His Money
In a 2016 CNBC interview with Carl Quintanilla, Freeman revealed, “I own Tesla. I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk’s, and I think he’s got the most incredibly forward-thinking ideas about where we can go technologically.”
His praise for Musk extended beyond Tesla, as he also commended SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace company. “He’s, you know, what he’s done, nobody else has ever done. He’s landed a rocket ship so it’s reusable — you know what a feat that is?” Freeman said. “Now we’re taking off and we’re going to Mars, delivering stuff to people who are going to be settling there, just like they settled the Old West, and bringing those ships back and landing them and reloading them.”
Musk posted the clip on X in April 2024, commenting, “Morgan Freeman is awesome.” And it has resurfaced recently in various media outlets, including Business Insider.
Freeman, however, never publicly disclosed how many Tesla shares he purchased or at what price.
At the time of the interview, Tesla stock traded at approximately $13.50 per share on a split-adjusted basis. Today, the price is $390.38 pr share, according to MarketWatch.
Tesla’s market cap has surged from around $30 billion in 2016 to $1.3 trillion today, according to Business Insider. The company’s revenue jumped from $7 billion in 2016 to $97 billion in 2023, with operating profits jumping from a $600 million loss to nearly $9 billion.
Freeman’s net worth — estimated at $250 million — would likely see only a minor boost even if he had retained his Tesla holdings. Reports indicate that his wealth was significantly impacted by a divorce settlement ranging from $100 million to $200 million in 2010.
