While accepting the Axel Springer Award yesterday in Germany, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about the possibility of a merger with a legacy automaker.
During the award ceremony, Musk sat down for a ‘business chat’ with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. Among the many questions asked was one about Tesla’s massive market cap, which is more than several of the world’s top automakers combined.
With a valuation now at over $550 billion, Döpfner asked Musk if he would buy one of the legacy automakers. The CEO said he isn’t going to launch a hostile takeover, but would consider it if they were approached with the idea.
“Well, I think we’re definitely not going to launch a hostile takeover. So I suppose if there was a friendly one, if somebody said, ‘Hey, we think it would be a good idea to merge with Tesla,’ we certainly could have that conversation. But, you know, we don’t want it to be a hostile takeover sort of situation.”
These weren’t the only interesting comments made by Musk during the award ceremony yesterday. He also talked about fully autonomous vehicles, and when he thinks Tesla will be able to achieve Level 5 autonomy.
You can watch the full award ceremony below.
