*By Carlo Versano*
Shares of the newly-public Chinese electric car company NIO surged for a second straight day Wednesday ー even amid a broader market slump ー on the news that Tesla's largest outside investor is taking a stake.
NIO ($NIO) was up as much as 5 percent on Wednesday morning, following an SEC [disclosure](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1088875/000108887518000054/NIOInc30092018.txt) that Baillie Gifford, an investment firm that owns 9 perfect of Tesla ($TSLA), is acquiring around 11 percent of NIO.
The investment shows that we're still in the early stages of a match to own the exploding market for luxury electric vehicles, and deep-pocketed investors seem willing to back more than one horse at a time.
"We're in uncharted territory now," said Tamara Warren, co-host of Cheddar Rides.
But NIO isn't Tesla.
Despite its troubles, Elon Musk's company has a soup-to-nuts production component.
NIO, on the other hand, doesn't actually make its own vehicles, as Warren noted. Instead, it has an agreement with a Chinese manufacturer. So while NIO proclaims itself to be a Tesla rival, "no one knows who's going to give Tesla run for their money," Warren said.
NIO raised $1 billion in a public offering last month on the NYSE, though it stumbled out of the gate. After more than doubling in its first few days on the market, shares feel back below their IPO price. With Wednesday's gains, the stock is at its highest level since Sept. 25.
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Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
