Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Elon Musk calls Koreans 'smart' for owning Tesla stock as No. 1 pick
Teslaconomics' X message of "Tesla is the most owned stock by Koreans" along with a stylized image of the South Korean national flag with a red-and-blue Tesla logo in the middle / Captured from Teslaconomics' X
By Yi Whan-woo
Tesla CEO Elon Musk called Koreans “smart,” for investing in stocks of the U.S. electric carmaker as their top pick over other companies outside Korea.
He made the comment on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a post from Teslaconomics, which updates Tesla-related news on X.
“Smart people,” the CEO wrote, less than four hours after Teslaconomics’ message Monday, that “Tesla is the most owned stock by Koreans,” along with a stylized image of the South Korean flag with a red-and-blue Tesla logo in the middle.
The message was viewed 268,000 times and had more than 3,130 likes as of 3:30 p.m., Wednesday.
According to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), Tesla was ranked top in terms of value for overseas stocks owned by domestic investors.
The value amounted to $15.05 billion in KSD’s latest update, Monday, as compared to that of the next three popular companies — $13.28 billion for Nvidia, $5.12 million for Apple and $4.1 million for Microsoft.
The simple, yet complimentary comment from Musk, who is a visionary business leader in green energy, space exploration and other innovative sectors, made news in Seoul.