Tesla Was a Month Away From Bankruptcy During Model 3 Production, Elon Musk Tweets The always-candid CEO overshared on social media again.

By Jessica Thomas

Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla's financial struggles have been the subject of many a news story over the past several years, but founder Elon Musk shared Tuesday that the situation has been more dire than the public knew at the time. In a series of Tweets, Musk revealed that Tesla was "about a month" away from bankruptcy between mid-2017 and mid-2019 while it was ramping up Model 3 production.

Related: Elon Musk's Net Worth Passes Warren Buffett's After Tesla Stock Reaches All-Time High

The two years of "hell" happened while Tesla was attempting to take the Model 3 from concept to mass production. And it turns out that wasn't the only time Tesla nearly went bankrupt. In 2008, the company secured a $40 million loan that Musk says came in at the "last hour" when Tesla was about three days away from bankruptcy.

Though for whatever it's worth, since both near-failures, Tesla's stock (and Musk's net worth) have both gone on to reach all-time highs.

Related: 61 Books Elon Musk Thinks You Should Read

Wavy Line
Jessica Thomas

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior Digital Content Director

Jessica Thomas is the senior digital content director at Entrepreneur. Prior to this role, she spent nearly five years on staff at Worth magazine and was a staff writer for Bustle. 

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