• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

Tesla raised a whopping $738 million in its stock sale

By
Katie Fehrenbacher
Katie Fehrenbacher
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Katie Fehrenbacher
Katie Fehrenbacher
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 20, 2015, 1:42 PM ET
Photograph by Johannes Eisele — AFP/Getty Images

Tesla raised $738 million from a stock sale, which closed on Wednesday, according to a regulatory filing, far exceeding the electric carmaker’s original estimates.

The company originally was looking to raise closer to $500 million last week, and then boosted that number to about $650 million a day later by agreeing to sell more shares. The reason for the higher amount is that the underwriters of the secondary stock sale — which included Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — exercised their options to buy additional shares.

All in all, Tesla sold 2.69 million shares plus an additional 404,000 to the underwriters. Tesla’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk also planned to spend $20 million buying shares in the deal.

Tesla plans to use the proceeds of its stock sale to help pay for its massive spending spree as it attempts to grow into a big — and eventually profitable — business with multiple product lines. The company is planning to introduce its SUV Model X next month, it’s designing its Model 3 car, it’s building a huge battery factory near Reno, Nevada, and it’s scaling up its grid battery business, which will sell batteries to utilities, companies and homeowners to connect to the power grid.

As part of its expansion, Tesla (TSLA) is planning on spending $1.5 billion in capital expenses this year. It’s “a staggering” amount of money, as Musk put it in an earnings call earlier this year. But with the investment, Musk has said he thinks Tesla can eventually become a company that is as valuable as Apple (AAPL), which currently has a market capitalization of $643 billion.

Tesla has already raised billions of dollars in debt and equity in recent years. Even if all goes well, Tesla likely won’t be regularly profitable until 2020. In its most recent earnings call, Tesla lowered its annual car shipment guidance from 55,000 cars in 2015 to between 50,000 and 55,000 this year.

For more about Tesla, watch this Fortune video:

About the Author
By Katie Fehrenbacher
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
North America
Gates Foundation plans to give away $9 billion in 2026 to prepare for the 2045 closure while slashing hundreds of jobs
By Sydney LakeJanuary 23, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Europe
Denmark offered to trade Greenland to the U.S. in 1910—and America thought it was crazy
By Steven Lamy and The ConversationJanuary 22, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976—today it’d be worth up to $400 billion
By Preston ForeJanuary 23, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Sweden abolished its wealth tax 20 years ago. Then it became a 'paradise for the super-rich'
By Miranda Sheild Johansson and The ConversationJanuary 22, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Jamie Dimon’s reality check for ambitious workers: ‘There’s going to be a grunt part to every part of a job. Get over it’
By Jake AngeloJanuary 23, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says ‘a lot’ of six-figure jobs in plumbing and construction are about to be unlocked because someone needs to build all these new AI centers
By Preston ForeJanuary 21, 2026
4 days ago

Latest in Tech

AIRecruiting
Silicon Valley talent keeps getting recycled, so this CEO uses a ‘moneyball’ approach for uncovering hidden AI geniuses in the new era
By Sydney LakeJanuary 25, 2026
12 hours ago
AIthe future of work
Meet a 70-year-old Home Depot store associate who uses AI on his phone about once an hour: ‘I think my job would suffer if I couldn’t’
By Matt O'Brien, Linley Sanders and The Associated PressJanuary 25, 2026
12 hours ago
lakehouse
AIConsulting
Inside KPMG’s Orlando Lakehouse: the $450 million Covid boondoggle that’s becoming a secret weapon for the AI revolution
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 25, 2026
15 hours ago
Virta Health CEO Sami Inkinen
SuccessPersonal Finance
The CEO of a $2 billion healthcare firm only felt rich after he paid off $100K in student loans—but that joy ‘disappeared’ in less than 3 days
By Emma BurleighJanuary 25, 2026
19 hours ago
Jake Miller, CEO of Fellow.
SuccessEntrepreneurs
This millennial founder got rejected 73 times before building a 9-figure coffee company. One more no, ‘I would have figured out how to sell a kidney’
By Preston ForeJanuary 24, 2026
2 days ago
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Menlo Park, California on Sept. 17, 2025. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
AIData centers
Why Meta is positioning itself as an AI infrastructure giant—and doubling down on a costly new path
By Sharon GoldmanJanuary 24, 2026
2 days ago