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- General Motors viewed Tesla in 2009 as a "bunch of engineers playing with laptop batteries."
- Nikola CEO Steve Girsky, who served on GM's board, recalled being told that in a recent Q&A.
- Tesla now ranks among the world's most-valuable companies with a $830 billion market capitalization.
One of Tesla's biggest rivals was totally dismissive of Elon Musk's automaker less than 15 years ago, Nikola CEO Steve Girsky recalled during a recent fireside chat.