Tesla Hater, 'Shark Tank' Judge Mr. Wonderful, Finally Buys Tesla Stock

To say Canadian multimillionaire and TV celebrity Kevin O’Leary dislikes investing in Tesla Inc. is an understatement. But that was before this week when Mr. Wonderful suddenly reversed course -- and for a truly heartening reason.

The man who loves his Tesla Model X (his wife egged him to buy the machine) but hates Tesla stock has now admitted to buying a “few” Tesla shares because he said he’s been very impressed of late with Tesla’s unwavering ability to attract the best engineering talent in the field.

A year ago, the “Shark Tank” judge answered “I don’t get it” when asked if he’d invest in Tesla. To be fair, O’Leary dislikes all car companies and has repeatedly asserted he doesn’t want to invest in any of them. He’s also said car brands are becoming commodities and are losing importance because they’re all the same.

“It’ll be no different than a rail car,” he said of his perceived commoditization of cars. That point of view has swung around because of Tesla, however.

He told CNBC he changed his mind about not investing in Tesla after attending electric vehicle (EV) races. O’Leary noticed that during these races, engineers from other car brands or educational institutions would flock to Tesla staff in attendance asking about job openings in the company.

He said regardless of where these EV teams came from, their engineers showed a remarkable interest in Tesla. They also displayed an equally noteworthy lack of interest in other car makers.

“Colleges and universities around the world with an engineering department generally put forward an electric Formula 1 car and engineering teams in their graduating years race these cars all over the world,” recounted O’Leary.

“I’ve been hanging out at the pits with these engineers, and I’ve learned something extraordinary. When you go to one of these races… when the race is over, the winning team -- they come from anywhere on Earth -- who do they want to talk to?

“They want to talk to the Tesla hiring team there; the HR people hanging around at the pits. Every one of these engineers, the smoking hot kids that sit with their cars, the men and women that sleep with them for 24 hours a day; it’s an unusual culture I’ve never seen before.

“They all want to work at Tesla. Why? Because the teams are six to eight people. If they go to a legacy car company, they get drowned out in the back somewhere. These smart, young, men and women make a big difference as interns. I can’t believe the access to talent they have. That’s why I bought the stock,” explained O’Leary.

By the way, O’Leary still thinks Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a genius.