---
title: "Elon Musk Claims $420 Tesla Stock Price Is for ‘Better Karma’ Not Marijuana"
description: "Tesla’s CEO announced plans to make the company private with a peculiar buyout figure for the stocks that some think could reference drugs."
date: "2018-08-17"
modified: "2018-08-17"
authors:
  - name: "Ian O'Connell"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ian-oconnell"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/22977/elon-musk-claims-420-tesla-stock-price-is-for-better-karma-not-marijuana"
categories:
  - "Car Tech"
  - "Electric Vehicles"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Tesla News"
tags:
  - "Drugs"
  - "Electric Vehicle"
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Tesla"
  - "twitter"
---

# Elon Musk Claims $420 Tesla Stock Price Is for ‘Better Karma’ Not Marijuana

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/08/gettyimages-1011183574.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com\</em\>*

[Tesla](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/22962/new-tesla-complaint-alleges-employee-drug-trafficking-and-theft-at-gigafactory>) CEO Elon Musk recently [announced](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776>) his plans to convert Tesla from public to [private](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/22722/elon-musk-explains-why-hes-thinking-of-making-tesla-private>), as well as making the shares $420 a piece. Some suspect there is a deeper meaning to this figure, however, due to the history of drug-related tweets on Musk’s Twitter account.

The Tweet heard around the world on Aug. 7: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”

https://twitter.com/\_/status/1026872652290379776

Musk claimed he wanted to offer a 20 percent premium over what the Tesla stock had previously been worth, according to an [interview](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/22972/report-teslas-elon-musk-confesses-the-worst-is-yet-to-come>) he had with [*The* *New York Times*](<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/business/elon-musk-interview-tesla.html>). The value would have been roughly $419, but Musk decided to round the number up to $420.

“It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419,” Musk said in the interview. “But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.”

The number “420” is often used as a coded term for marijuana usage and has been associated with the subculture around cannabis usage. Musk has been known to post drug-related content on Twitter, so many speculated the tweet that announced the $420 per share stock price could have referenced marijuana.

Instances of Musk’s drug-related jokes on Twitter date back a couple of years at least. In July of 2016, he [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/754277459009298432>) that “large amounts of crack” was the trick to staying focused with little amounts of sleep.

A [tweet](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/872260000491593728>) Musk made in June of 2017 mentioned mixing Ambien, a drug that assists with sleep, with red wine, which is considered a dangerous combination according to the [American Addiction Center](<https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/mixing-ambien/>).

https://twitter.com/\_/status/872260000491593728

In October of 2017, Musk [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/916030871232176129?lang=en>) he was going to “party like Escobar and Cobain wish they could’ve partied,” which is a reference to the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, who struggled with heroin addiction during his life.

https://twitter.com/\_/status/916030871232176129

And, earlier this year, Musk [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/990028017861705729?lang=en>) that “most people don’t know this, but comets \[are\] mostly made of cocaine.”

https://twitter.com/\_/status/990028017861705729

Although Musk claims the stock price was not a drug reference, his Twitter history seems to suggests otherwise.

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