Business Insider
Tesla has avoided adding a finance arm to lend customers money to buy cars.
But Tesla could now become a bitcoin banking hub.
About 10 years ago, I joined a conference call with Elon Musk to talk about a new leasing program for Tesla s Model S sedan, which was then relatively new to the market. I asked the CEO when he thought the automaker might start its own bank.
He said that Tesla was happy with its established finance partners and wasn t planning to create the Bank of Elon anytime soon. Which made sense. Tesla was then producing a fraction of the half-million cars it did in 2020. Manufacturing vehicles was far more important than lending people money to buy them.
Astro Teller, left, and Larry Page. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Loon/Alphabet; Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Insider This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
In January, Alphabet announced it would shutter its internet balloon business, Loon.
It followed years of inflating costs and geopolitical headaches for the team.
Meanwhile, the company tried to conjure new ways to make money from cruise liners, offshore oil rigs, and more.
For years, images of Loon s stratospheric balloons could be spotted throughout Google s campuses. Employees pitching to advertising clients would sometimes slip in a picture or mention of the project in their otherwise dull, statistic-heavy decks. Occasionally, a balloon could be spotted drifting across the presentation welcoming new employees to the company.