Gary Zhou 
Elon Musk’s total holdings in Tesla are now smaller than the stake of the United States’ “Big Three” passive investing funds. The Tesla CEO still holds the most shares of the electric vehicle maker as of writing.
Back in 2020, Tesla was included in the S&P 500. It was a landmark milestone for both Tesla and the S&P 500 then, as the electric vehicle maker was the single biggest inclusion into the index to date. With Tesla in the S&P 500, index funds had to purchase the EV maker’s shares.
As noted by the Financial Times, as long as money keeps sloshing into index funds, the firms would have to purchase TSLA stock according to the company’s weighting in benchmarks. Thanks to this, Vanguard funds have become TSLA’s second-largest shareholder with a 6.85% stake. BlackRock funds now have a 3.6% stake, and State Street Global Advisors hold a 3.13% stake in TSLA.
Overall, this meant that Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street Global Advisors now hold about 13.58% of Tesla stock. In comparison, Elon Musk, after offloading TSLA shares last year to fund his turbulent acquisition of Twitter, holds 13.42% of the electric vehicle maker.
It’s worth noting that BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street each have their respective active funds that are also capable of investing in Tesla, and it is possible that they have done so. Thus, their collective ownership of 13.58% of TSLA may not be attributable solely to passive investments. However, the FT noted that the vast majority of the funds’ TSLA holdings are likely passive.
It should be noted that Fidelity’s passive business, Geode Capital Management, also hold a 1.55% stake in Tesla, making it a top shareholder of the company. In addition, Invesco’s QQQ ETF also holds a 1% TSLA stake. If these passive holdings are taken into account, the passive ownership of Tesla jumps to 16.13%, notably higher than Musk’s 13.42%.
