Hang on, they're not unrelated businesses. This is kind of the same as Steve Jobs even. Apple is a software company that also creates hardware for their softwa

Hang on, they're not unrelated businesses. This is kind of the same as Steve Jobs even. Apple is a software company that also creates hardware for their software to run on. They're two businesses under one roof. Hardware is definitely a pretty high risk business too. Tesla is an electric car company that also creates batteries for their cars to run on. Tesla has more chance to make higher profits by controlling their battery operation, and also has higher chances of failure. This is the same as Apple and creating their own hardware instead of letting their software run on all hardware. There's differences, but I think your argument doesn't hold much water and has nothing to do with whether Apple or Tesla can be successful businesses.