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Tesla fans have circulated posts claiming the company has confirmed the acquisition of a lithium mining firm, a junior mining firm based in Nevada. Tesla’s chief Elon Musk has previously promoted many accounts that became influential in the Tesla community. However, some of these accounts have been spreading misinformation, according to a report on the Electrek website.
Elon Musk Says Tesla Might Get Into the Lithium Business
Accounts have referred to Elon Musk’s recent comments mentioning that Tesla might consider getting into the lithium business “directly and at scale because the cost of the metal, a key component in manufacturing batteries, have gotten so high.” However, the company did not make any announcement regarding the lithium company acquisition.
Sawyer Merritt, who operates a Twitter account, popular amongst Tesla fans and which Musk has often promoted, also shared the news that the automaker has confirmed that it acquired a Nevada-based lithium mining company. According to Merritt, who acknowledged sharing a fake story and deleted the tweet, within only 30 minutes, Tesla fans on Twitter have retweeted his post over 400 times.
The fake story about Tesla’s acquisition of Lithium Corp. went viral and sent the firm’s stock up more than 250%. The Lithium Corporation has issued an official statement shutting down fake news and rumors of a buyout by Tesla and confirmed that the company has no relationship with Tesla.
Lithium Corp. Confirms the Buyout Story Is Fake
The Lithium Corporation’s statement shared on Bloomberg reads: “Lithium Corporation, a North American company focused on energy metals for the growing energy storage sector and high-tech industries, wishes to inform shareholders that, contrary to a press release issued by unknown parties on the 12th of April and rumors circulating on social media, we have not received so much as an expression of interest from Tesla, Inc. and no employees have left Lithium Corporation to take up employment with Tesla. We would be happy to chat with Elon if he was inclined. But presently, there is no relationship between the two companies.”
According to reports, “only 200,000 shares of Lithium Corporation, which normally trades at around $0.30, change hands every day, but over 20 million shares moved after the fake news started spreading,” especially after Tesla purchased small companies to develop the automaker’s strategies.
In late 2020, Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies and Hibar Systems while working on its long-lasting battery cells and announced that it aims to halve the costs of the most expensive part of an EV by producing its batteries. As Tesla's 4680 lithium-ion batteries hold about five times the energy of its current smaller 2170 cells, social media users raised discussions about Tesla acquiring Lithium firms.
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