Elon Musk's strategy diverges from Mark Zuckerberg's as Meta's market cap tops Tesla's

For the first time in 16 months, Meta META -1.22% Platforms surpassed Tesla TSLA -9.75% in market value after the close of trading on Thursday as the strategies of their respective chief executives diverged, in spite of their similar market valuations.

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A company led by billionaire Elon Musk, Tesla (ticker: TSLA) finished Thursday as the eighth-biggest public company in the United States, just ahead of Meta , run by Mark Zuckerberg. The Dow Jones Market Data data indicates that Meta's market cap for Thursday's session was $552.4 billion, which topped Tesla's market cap for the same day of $515.7 billion. As a result of Tesla's disappointing earnings reports last Thursday, Tesla's shares fell nearly 10% Thursday, lowering its value. A recent strategy of Musk to improve Tesla's sales growth has contributed to a price reduction at the company.

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Compared to Zuckerberg, who has been slashing jobs and investments in the metaverse since last year, investors have flocked to Zuckerberg's actions, cheering his efforts to reduce costs.

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In November, the company announced that it was going to lay off about a quarter of its workforce, which is equivalent to 21,000 employees, but on Thursday, Zuckerberg told employees that future layoffs are possible and that hiring will slow down, according to Trade Algo. 

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It is also worth noting that Tesla shares have also increased since their lows in January, rising 144% since then.

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Meta shares fell by 1.3% in pre-market trading on Friday, while Tesla stock rose by 1.7%. There is a clear trend emerging among the two companies.