🚀 Elon’s big year

good 4 u... Olivia Rodrigo, Elon Musk, Simone Biles, and vaccine scientists were honored in Time's "Person of the Year" issue. Elon was coverboy, aka the Person of the Year. The title is less of an award, more of an acknowledgement of influence. Past POYs include Donald Trump (2016), Pope Francis (2013), Mark Zuckerberg (2010), and The Computer (1982). Back to Elon...

• The EV and space pioneer became the world’s richest person this year, and gained mass cultural influence through his eccentric tweets — from crypto memes to live-tweeted bathroom breaks.
• As Time put it: “Musk is our avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to the remade world… where Earth and humanity can still be saved."

Happy and healthy... finally. Tesla is worth nearly $1T, and SpaceX is leading America’s spacefaring efforts, but Elon's companies weren't always successful: In 2008, Tesla stood on the verge of collapse, and Elon went broke using personal funds to keep it going. That same year, a string of bombshell failures for SpaceX resulted in headlines like this. A few years ago, Tesla was close to bankruptcy again. Today:

• Tesla controls two-thirds of the EV market, and could help reduce global warming if the company delivers on its pledges. The EVs that Tesla popularized have forced OG carmakers to invest billions in electric.
• SpaceX became the first private company to send humans to space last year. This year, it won a $2.9B contract to develop a NASA lunar lander — and its valuation topped $100B. Now it’s working on a next-gen rocket for Mars missions.
• Not all good 4 u: Elon has faced (and is facing) a number of challenges, from federal probes into Tesla’s Autopilot software to regulatory fines for the infamous $420 tweet.

Meet the eHog… Harley-Davidson’s electric-motorcycle division, LiveWire, aims to go public in a $1.8B SPAC deal and become the world’s first publicly traded e-motorcycle company. LiveWire has been part of Harley for a decade, and it spun off as a separate unit in 2019. Its only product is the LiveWire One, a $22K e-motorcycle with a 146-mile range. Harley’s stock surged 16% yesterday on the news. FYI: Harley will still own ¾ of LiveWire.

Old hog, new tricks… Harley has struggled to attract millennials for years: The brand’s average customer was 48 years old when Harley stopped reporting buyer stats in 2008, and last year its sales were down 40% from their 2006 peak. But Harley has boosted profits in recent quarters by cutting costs. Now the 118-year-old brand plans to keep the momentum going by tapping into the surging popularity of EVs.

• The early bird may get the worm: Rivian’s market cap has soared past $100B — more than both Ford and GM — since it became the first public e-truck biz last month.
• As gas prices soar, electric motorcycles could become an increasingly appealing option — especially in crowded European cities where parking is trés hard.

• Vaxxing: Some of the largest US hospitals are dropping vaccine mandates for employees in an attempt to ease persistent staffing shortages.
• Bowel: Pfizer is buying drug developer Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7B in cash to gain Arena’s promising treatment candidate for stomach and intestine diseases.
• Celeb: Getty Images, known for its vast stock-photo library, plans to go public again after 13 years by merging with a SPAC at a $4.8B valuation.
• Press: Rivian’s R1T e-pickup was crowned truck of the year by auto magazine Motor Trend, a month after Lucid’s EV sedan won car of the year (sorry, Tesla).
• Biscoff: Delta said it would invest $1.2B in partner airlines Virgin Atlantic, Aeromexico, and Latam Airlines as it positions itself to seize a rebound in international travel.
• IPOut: Chinese AI company SenseTime said it would postpone its Hong Kong IPO, after the US gov’t added it to a blacklist of companies that it says support China’s military development.

• Earnings expected from: BHP Group

Authors of this Snacks own: Bitcoin, and shares of Tesla, Pfizer, Ford, GM, and Delta

ID: 1957444