Elon Musk says Tesla, SpaceX facing ‘significant’ inflationary pressure
Summary
- Billionaire also offers advice, saying it’s better to own home or stock in companies during high inflation; ‘I still own & won’t sell my bitcoin, ethereum or doge’
Billionaire Elon Musk said his two companies Tesla Inc. and SpaceX are facing substantial inflationary pressure and that he has no plans to sell his cryptocurrency holdings.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person by net worth, said in a tweet Sunday that both the electrical-vehicle maker and the space-exploration company “are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistics."
His comments come after government data released last week showed consumer prices jumped at a 7.9% annual rate last month, the highest in four decades. And a separate poll by The Wall Street Journal showed nonwhite voters were more likely to say the recent inflation is causing a big financial strain on their lives.
“As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high," Mr. Musk said on Twitter.
“I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw," he added.
The price of bitcoin was recently trading at around $39,000, according to CoinDesk. It is down by roughly half from its all-time high in November.
Mr. Musk’s net worth is $206 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr. Musk’s comments on inflation come as rising energy, food and services prices are the key components driving inflation higher. Oil and commodity market disruptions from the Ukraine crisis are expected to add more cost pressures in the coming months. The last time consumer prices were this high was in January 1982 during a recession.
Inflation is being felt from consumers to businesses. More than 350 companies in the S&P 500 cited inflation during their earnings calls for the latest quarter, according to financial-data provider FactSet, the most since at least 2010.
Mr. Musk’s comments echoed Tesla’s recent results as well. The company said higher logistics costs and materials prices weighed on profit last year.
Other companies have been feeling similar pressures, from soda maker Coca-Cola Co. to consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co.
“Inflationary and supply chain pressures continue to impact costs across several fronts in the business, including input costs, transportation, marketing and operating expenses," Coca-Cola Chief Financial Officer John Murphy told analysts on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call last month.
P&G, the maker of Pampers diapers and Tide laundry detergent, said it expected inflationary pressure to continue.
“Availability of materials remain stretched in some categories and in some markets, inflationary pressures are broad-based with little sign of near term relief," Andre Schulten, chief financial officer at P&G, said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call in January.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
