$Apple (AAPL.US)$ In the few weeks that Musk joined Twitter,...

In the few weeks that Musk joined Twitter, judging from Musk's entrepreneurial experience, from “bloodwashing” executives, violent layoffs, and the launch of the “Blue V certification” user account, he has always been a “torturous person.”

From early Zip2 and PayPal, to later Everdream, Tesla, and DeepMind, start a business—sell—then start a business,Relying on the money earned from the previous project to feed the next “golden beast,” Musk played this routine very well.

The same is true of Twitter's acquisition this time. After completing the $44 billion acquisition, Musk sold Tesla shares worth 3.95 billion US dollars.Tesla, which makes the most money, has become Musk's cash cow in all of his investment projects.

In the few weeks that Musk joined Twitter, a series of “thunder methods”, from “bloodwashing” executives, violent layoffs, and the launch of “Blue V certification” user accounts, a series of “thunder methods” completed what others might have done for a year.

Judging from Musk's entrepreneurial experience, he has always been a “torturous person.”

His first pot of money came from Zip2, a corporate information website he founded with his older brother (similar to the corporate online yellow pages). The initial capital was 20,000 US dollars funded by his father. Although in 1996, with the support of venture capital, Zip2 ushered in business expansion and turned a loss into a profit, differences with investors in the direction of business eventually led to Musk's departure.

Zip2 was sold to Compaq (Compaq) for $307 million in 1999, and Musk made a net profit of $22 million from this.

In November of the same year, Musk offered 10 million US dollars to establish the Internet electronic payment platform X.com. In 2000, it was renamed PayPal after merging with the Confinity platform, which was its main competitor at the time. Musk sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, and as the company's largest shareholder, Musk made a profit of about $180 million from the deal.

It was these two initial funds that supported the early development of Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity.

In 2002, Musk invested 100 million US dollars to establish SpaceX, a space exploration technology company. While concentrating on rocket research, Musk also “took time” to invest 6.5 million US dollars in Tesla Motors, becoming Tesla's largest shareholder and chairman. It was only after Tesla founder Eberhard left the company in 2007 that Musk took control of Tesla in the true sense of the word.

In 2006, Musk invested $10 million in co-founding the photovoltaic power generation company SolarCity with his cousin, and acquired SolarCity through Tesla in 2016 with a share of 2.6 billion US dollars.

In addition to the familiar cases mentioned above, Musk has also successively invested in data software company Everdream and game platform Game Trust. These two companies were acquired by Dell and Real Networks in 2007, bringing Musk 15 million and 1.5 million dollars in investment returns.

He also received returns of $2.5 million and $92 million, respectively, from investments in mobile advertising company OnerIoT (acquired by Walmart in 2011) and artificial intelligence startup DeepMind (acquired by Google in 2014).

In 2013, when he was stuck on the road, Musk came up with the idea of building a high-speed railway, and founded The Boring Company (Tunneling Company) and launched the Hyperloop project. The goal was to cross a distance of about 350 miles (560 km) within 30 minutes. The initial conceptual design of the hyperloop train was completed by Tesla and SpaceX engineers.

In 2017, Musk founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company to develop implantable brain-computer interface technology. According to Dealroom data, Musk invested about 150 million US dollars in this company.

Of course, in the next few investments, in addition to investing his own initial capital, Musk will also use the power of capital more and more. With his appeal, he has attracted large amounts of venture capital to support high-speed rail and brain computer projects.

Looking back at Musk's entrepreneurial experience, it can be said that he was quite busy. From 1995 to 2002, Musk, who was unable to stay idle, immediately “monetized” a project and put it into the next stage of entrepreneurship.

According to Tesla's 2017 prospectus, Musk's personal outstanding loans are about US$500 million, of which he owes US$209 million to Morgan Stanley, US$213 million to Goldman Sachs, and US$85.5 million to Bank of America. However, these loans in exchange for Tesla stock mortgages were used for the operation of companies such as SpaceX and Boring Company. After Tesla completed its listing, Musk made full use of his ability to use Tesla stock loans.

In addition to capital, Musk is also very good at using other resources from the Tesla team. The management and technical teams of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity are highly integrated.

Tesla is one of the few profitable investments currently made by Musk. After struggling for the first ten years, Tesla finally achieved its first profit in a single quarter in Q1 2013. Net profit was US$11.24 million, and its stock price also ushered in a round of sharp increases.

Beginning in the second half of 2019, Tesla's stock price soared again at the end of 2019, boosted by the construction of a factory in Shanghai and the development of new energy vehicles exceeding expectations. At the same time, it also began in early 2020. Profits are no longer difficult for Tesla.

In terms of time, Tesla is considered one of Musk's longest-lasting projects, but even so, Musk began drastically reducing Tesla's stock holdings just one year after making a profit.

In 2021, Musk exercised more than 2.15 million Tesla stock options at a price of $6.24 per contract and sold 934,000 Tesla shares after exercising the rights. Documents submitted to the SEC state that the shares were sold to pay taxes generated from the exercise of the 2.15 million options.

But since then, Musk's holdings have been cut and out of control. According to statistics, in 2021, Musk sold more than 20 million shares before Tesla's stock split, cashing out nearly 22 billion US dollars.

Tesla's current size and influence are not the same as Musk's original Zip2 and PayPal. Although Musk, who has worked many jobs, does not spend all of his energy on Tesla now, as well as the “super high-speed rail” and the sea of stars, it is also difficult for the “flower heart” Musk to emulate his original startup project and retreat completely.

What's more, at its peak last year, Tesla's market value once stood at 1 trillion US dollars. According to previous mortgage loans or sell-off methods, Tesla was definitely a “cash cow.” At least compared to SpaceX, which is still burning money, Tesla has grown to provide a stable cash flow.

Just recently,Musk once again “sold” Tesla shares for the sake of his “new favorite” TwitterAccording to the latest US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents, Musk disclosed in the submitted regulatory documents,From November 4 to 8, he sold over 19.5 million Tesla shares worth about US$3.95 billion for three consecutive trading days. According to the second-quarter report previously released by Twitter, its quarterly loss reached 270 million US dollars as of June, leaving only 2.7 billion US dollars in cash on its balance sheet. The current financial situation is indeed in urgent need of a blood transfusion from the new boss.

Relying on the money earned from the previous project to support the next one is also in line with Musk's habits along the way.However, this is a bit unfair to Tesla, which is still in fierce competition for new energy vehicles. This may also be an important reason why Tesla's stock price has been falling incessantly recently.