Elon Musk fired off a single-word reply — "lol" — to an old Wall Street prediction urging investors to sell Tesla stock, igniting a viral storm on X that underscored how dramatically the electric-vehicle pioneer has defied skeptics over the past eight years. The April 8, 2026, post quickly amassed millions of views as users piled on with memes, old headlines and fresh data showing Tesla shares up roughly 1,100% since the 2018 bearish call.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2026
The exchange began when user James Stephenson shared a screenshot of a headline from eight years ago that read "Sell $TSLA" because "the competition is coming." Musk, who owns roughly 13% of Tesla and serves as CEO, responded simply with "lol" at 6:12 a.m. GMT, turning a dusty financial forecast into the day's hottest topic. By mid-afternoon the thread had drawn more than 3.5 million views, 21,000 likes and hundreds of replies celebrating Tesla's resilience while roasting the analysts who once bet against it.
