Who's Actually Threatening Musk's Empire in 2024? The Real Competitors

Elon Musk juggles three companies at once—Tesla, X, and SpaceX. That’s a lot of plates spinning. Meanwhile, the market isn’t waiting around. We dug into which competitors are actually posing real threats to his operations this year.

BYD: Tesla’s Shadow in EV

Here’s what most U.S. investors miss: BYD is crushing it globally. Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 captured the top two spots in global sales through August 2023, each hitting over a million units. Sounds dominant, right?

But BYD holds positions 3, 4, and 9 simultaneously. And when you factor in their plug-in hybrids? BYD has already sold 2.8+ million vehicles by November—outpacing Tesla. In China specifically, BYD controls 25% market share, more than double Tesla’s footprint.

The gap is tightening. Fast.

Apple vs. X: The App Store Showdown

Musk and Apple have been butting heads over X (formerly Twitter) for a while. The core issues:

Commission rates: Musk openly criticized Apple’s app store cut. He’s not wrong—plenty of developers share this complaint.

Content moderation: X operates with loose moderation standards. Apple? Strict. Very strict. They’ve removed entire apps (remember Parler in 2020?) for not meeting their guidelines. Historical precedent suggests Apple could do the same to X.

This tension will likely intensify throughout 2024.

Amazon’s Starlink Paradox

Here’s where it gets weird. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is building satellite-based internet to directly compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. Meanwhile, Amazon hired SpaceX to launch three of those very satellites.

So Musk’s company is literally helping Amazon build the infrastructure to compete against him. Talk about playing both sides.

SpaceX maintains a commanding lead over Bezos’s Blue Origin in the space race. But Kuiper represents a different kind of threat—one that could fragment the satellite internet market long-term.