> However, the interesting thing here is that Tesla has become more 'valuable' than Ford, for this definition of value. I think it's a very tortured definition

> However, the interesting thing here is that Tesla has become more 'valuable' than Ford, for this definition of value. I think it's a very tortured definition of "value", though... I don't have a Bloomberg terminal in front of me anymore to check, but I'm guessing Ford's bonds are generally trading closer to par than zero. In which case the bondholders are telling you they think there is about $100 billion worth of additional value to Ford's business beyond the value of the equity. That's a really big piece of context to this story. I agree with you in principle that market cap is a perfectly valid metric, but when you're comparing a majority-equity company to a majority-debt company (assuming the bonds are valued as non-distressed assets) it ignores something very, very significant.