Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk unveils a new all-wheel-drive version of the Model S car in Hawthorne, California October 9, 2014.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk seemed to rally behind GameStop‘s epic surge on Tuesday, tweeting out a link to the Reddit board that’s largely hyped the stock.
Shares of GameStop, which jumped 92.7% Tuesday, were up more than 60% in after hours trading following Musk’s tweet, which linked to the “wallstreetbets” Reddit chat room that has more than 2 million subscribers. The Tesla CEO tweeted “Gamestonk!!”
The stock surged earlier in the day after Social Capital’s Chamath Palihapitiya said in a tweet that he bought GameStop call options, betting the stock will go higher.
Musk’s call outs to certain companies have influenced stock prices before. Earlier Tuesday, he tweeted about a hand-knit wool hat he bought for his dog on Etsy. That sent shares of the company up as much as 8% in premarket trading, though it ultimately closed down 2.1%.
The CEO has faced problems with the SEC for tweeting about Tesla’s stock. In August 2018, he said he wanted to take Tesla private at $420 per share and that he had secured the funding to do so. Musk and Tesla each had to pay the SEC a $20 million fine to settle the suit, and Musk has since agreed to submit his public statements about Tesla’s finances and other topics to vetting by its legal counsel. He infamously tweeted last year that Tesla’s stock was “too high,” sending shares even higher a week later.
— Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
