Ronald Stephen Baron, also known as Ron Baron, is an American mutual fund manager and investor. He’s the founder of Baron Capital, an investment management firm based in New York City. Baron Capital oversees the Baron Funds, which he established, and currently manages around US $45 billion in assets. As of November 2022, Baron’s net worth stands at an impressive US $5 billion.
Recently, Baron appeared on CNBC TV’s ‘Squawk Box’ to delve into Walter Isaacson’s recent book about Elon Musk, share his insights on the visionary and talk about his major investments in SpaceX and Tesla.
Investment
“So, I first met him back in 2010. It took us four years before we began investing, specifically from 2014 to 2016, that’s when we acquired the stock,” said Baron, answering a question about how he got to know the real-life Iron Man.
Baron continued that he managed to make about twenty times his initial investment there. As for SpaceX, he said he had been investing since 2017, noting that he is one of the largest investors in SpaceX, even though it’s not a publicly traded company while adding that his company currently has US $1.7 billion invested, holding a total of 17.5 million shares, 4.5 million which belong to Baron.
“Untethered”
“We’ve been an investor for quite a long time,” said Baron, before elaborating that when he first invested, some of the things Musk was doing were driving him crazy, despite Baron’s open admiration for the South African. “However, I calmed myself down and told myself that I truly deserve to make a lot of money by investing in this and staying with it.”
Baron also mentioned that what struck him about Musk was the realization that these groundbreaking achievements happened because he was, quoting Isaakson, “untethered” from convention.
“He’s the guy who got us electric cars and got us to space,” he said, believing that if Musk were a conventional person, we’d have never heard of electric cars or space exploration to Mars. “He’s a very funny, engaging and incredibly hardworking person.”
Baron then shifted to Musk’s childhood, talking about the difficulties he had with his father and how he found solace in reading the Encyclopedia at home.
The Encyclopaedia
“He would read the Encyclopaedia, read the Encyclopaedia, that was his nickname from his mom, “Encyclopaedia”,” said Baron, telling the hosts that because he knew the answer to every question. “What amazes me about him now is that every time you ask him, “How do you do that? How do you know that?”, he already knows the answer.
Baron ended the interview by saying Musk is intensely focused on driving costs down in everything he does while most others aim to maximize profits and that he’s focused on his long-term mission, which is to make our planet habitable and resilient in the face of unforeseen challenges.
Featured image: Ron Baron on ‘Investor Ron Baron on trusting Elon Musk after making big bets on Tesla and SpaceX’. Credit: CNBC Television
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