Musk’s headaches: meet China’s corporate matrix challenging his business empire
US entrepreneur Elon Musk has long been highly respected in China. His business ideas – from electric cars to rockets, humanoid robots and brain implants – have spawned Chinese followers, many of which now pose growing threats to Musk’s business empire.
These Chinese competitors tend to follow a similar strategy: capitalise on the large domestic market to grow their business while taking advantage of the country’s integrated supply chains and expertise in fast-response manufacturing to hone their competitive edge.
Here is a rundown of some of the most formidable rivals in Musk’s bread-and-butter sectors. These are the Chinese companies the world’s first trillionaire is likely to be keeping an eye on.
Electric vehicles and autonomous driving
Nio’s founder and CEO, William Li, and Xpeng’s chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, have said that their experience owning Teslas in China, shortly after the US carmaker entered the market in 2014, played a part in their decisions to start their companies.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun openly discussed purchasing and tearing down three Tesla Model Y SUVs as his company prepared for its entry into the car market in 2025.
While the above companies offer cars comparable to Tesla’s in terms of features, by far the biggest rival to the US carmaker is Shenzhen-based BYD, previously backed by Warren Buffett.