I stood on a peak on Catalina Island and bought Tesla at the IPO price of $17, a desperate move that turned into a $2.4 million fortune by the end of 2025. My son and I were on a Boy Scout camping trip when I realized I had zero cell phone reception and needed to place my order before the market opened. I climbed the hill until I found a point marked with a cross, finally found a gold bar, and frantically clicked the buy button on my brokerage app.
The story was shared in the comments of Herbert Ong’s YouTube video, in which early investors swap stories of life-changing returns. At the time, the company priced its initial public offering at $17 a share, raising $226 million, the first IPO by a U.S. automaker in decades.
Fifteen years later, this reviewer’s original holding has increased by more than 38,000%, thanks to two stock splits and relentless execution by Elon Musk’s team.
I was an automotive engineer before moving into aerospace, where I competed directly with SpaceX from the early days.
Watching Elon Musk in action up close convinced me that electric vehicles are not a fad but the inevitable future of transportation. My first electric car was a 2000 Ford Ranger Electric, a hulking proof-of-concept that showed me that batteries and electric motors could replace the internal combustion engine.
When Tesla filed for its IPO, I recognized the same relentless engineering culture I’d seen at SpaceX that only applies to mass-market cars. According to CNBC, an investment of $10,000 at the IPO price would now be worth nearly $3 million, a return that almost entirely mirrors my own experience. I never imagined the company would become an AI robotics giant; I just believed in the mission of accelerating sustainable energy development.
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Since that IPO purchase, I’ve owned 16 different electric cars, 7 of them Teslas, and my current favorite is the Cybertruck. After acquiring SolarCity in 2016, I immediately chose Tesla’s solar products and installed the panels immediately after the deal was completed. When the first Powerwall launched in 2015, I pre-ordered and upgraded with each new generation, creating a fully integrated home energy system.
Every Tesla in my driveway runs Full Self-Driving, a feature that has evolved from a gimmick to a truly useful piece of self-driving suite. Car and Driver reports that after years of delays, Cybertruck deliveries will begin in November 2023, and the truck’s polarizing design makes it, in my opinion, the most powerful electric vehicle I’ve ever driven. My garage now looks like a Tesla showroom with solar panels overhead, Powerwalls on the walls, and a Cybertruck plugged into wall connectors.
While I didn’t specify the exact amount invested or profits realized in my review, the math behind Tesla’s returns clearly tells the story of life-changing wealth. Tesla’s two stock splits turned each original share into fifteen shares, increasing my share count without any additional investment on my part. The first split in August 2020 was five to one, and the second split in August 2022 was three to one, creating a conversion ratio of 15 to 1.
With Tesla trading at about $433 by the end of 2025, every $17 share of the stock is now worth about $6,500 since 2010, a 382-fold increase that defies conventional investment logic. According to StatMuse, Tesla’s total return since 2011 is 22,027%, making it one of the greatest wealth creators in modern stock market history. My initial investment (which seemed risky at the time) has paid for college, paid off my mortgage and created a seven-figure nest egg that I still keep as a permanent position rather than exiting the trade.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I bought Tesla stock in 2010 for $17 — here’s what I’m worth now