<Anchor> It
is a friendly economy time.
Today (26th), I will be with reporter Kwon Ae-ri.
Are you talking about Tesla today?
Tesla stock is falling really too much these days.
<Reporter>
Yes.
Tesla's share price is now down by a third compared to the beginning of the year.
It opened at $400 on opening day this year, but it came down to $123.
Considering that the dollar has become more expensive in the meantime, even if calculated in won, it is about one-third.
The recent downtrend is particularly frightening.
The stock has lost nearly 37% in the past month alone.
Looking at performance alone, Tesla this year was doing well in terms of operating profit and business.
However, the stock price has gone down.
Exactly two months ago, Tesla was the world's sixth-largest company by market capitalization, but now it's slipped out of the 12th and 10th spots.
And CEO Elon Musk, arguably the world's most famous and most talked-about entrepreneur, gave up the world's richest number one spot, which he had maintained all year until the beginning of this month.
<Anchor>
I don't think it would be too much to use the expression that Tesla stock has plummeted so much, but what is the reason why it has fallen so much?
<Reporter>
First of all, there are risks of the company itself called Tesla.
It also reflects the things we need to think about in the market now.
First of all, if you look at the Tesla itself, it is an accident in which one car jumped on top of another car.
This is the scene of a traffic accident that occurred at the end of last month on a highway in San Francisco, USA. In an eight-fold collision, nine people, including children, were injured.
The car that caused the accident is a Tesla Model S.
However, the driver of this car said, "The accident was caused by the car, not me."
The so-called complete self-driving function was running with a function that virtually left the driving to the car without anyone touching it.
Fully autonomous driving is not yet available for all Tesla cars.
It's like an additional option that you have to buy with an additional 20 million won.
It's pushing as a new source of revenue for next year, and it's also one of the core of Tesla's alleged innovations.
However, the accident occurred on the day when it was announced that all cars of Tesla would be able to drive fully autonomously from next year.
In fact, there have already been dozens of accidents with Tesla's fully autonomous driving, so the US authorities are now investigating.
As this story became known, Tesla's stock price fell another 9% in one day last weekend.
Cars driving themselves Autonomous driving will advance somehow.
However, is the technology that entrusts driving, which is directly related to human life, to cars, a stage that can be widely applied right now or in the near future?
Is it okay?
Elon Musk has continued to insist that it is okay, but we have no choice but to be anxious.
There was a lot of complaints that Musk paid less attention to Tesla while focusing on Twitter, which Musk bought this year, and there are not a few competitors to Tesla only as an electric vehicle.
That's why there was more interest in fully autonomous driving. It shows that companies whose stock prices reflect expectations, enthusiasm, and popularity for a future that has not yet been realized can stumble more when expectations are disappointed.
<Anchor>
But now, looking at the market as a whole this year, these big tech companies like Tesla, the overall decline has been a bit noticeable.
<Reporter>
Yes.
That's right.
Now, as interest rates rose rapidly, stock prices declined in general, but the decline in so-called big tech growth stocks and technology stocks was particularly pronounced.
When there is a lot of money on the market, people flock with expectations to companies that present a vision for the future, even if it is a new technology that has not yet been fully tested.
When money dries up and the economic outlook darkens, on the contrary, we start to be wary of these companies and think again.
This year, American big tech has contracted enough to lead to mass layoffs.
The Nasdaq 100, an index that separately collects the best-selling companies in Nasdaq, where many of these companies are concentrated, fell 8.9% this month alone.
Bloomberg's analysis is that it is at the worst level after the burst of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s.
However, Tesla is the most bought stock by individual investors in Korea over the past three months, even as the stock price continues to decline.
They bought more than 1 trillion won.
To that extent, expectations for Tesla, and furthermore, for American Big Tech are still high.
However, it is not an easy market for the time being, and a cautious approach is required.
Elon Musk, who always boasts that Tesla's market cap will soon become the world's No. 1, recently came out on a podcast and said, "Please do not borrow stocks."