What Is “Tesla’s Secret Supplier?” (Jeff Brown SAV Pick)

Today I’m looking into a Brownstone Research presentation about “S.A.V.,” which Jeff Brown claims is Elon Musk’s “next big project.”

According to Brown, this project could “put an extra $30,000 in your pocket every year,” and there’s one “little-known” company making it possible.

“I’m about to get in this Tesla and drive up to a location just a few miles from here to show you Elon Musk’s next big project…

Something known as S.A.V…

Not many people know about this…

But it could put up to an extra $30,000 in your pocket every year.

And in just a moment, I’m going to do a live demo here on camera…

Because that’s the only way you’re going to believe me.

I want you to see it with your own eyes.

I’m also going to tell you about a little-known company that’s supplying Elon with a key piece of technology that’s making this new project possible.”

What company is he teasing? And is the presentation legit?

Jeff Brown didn’t share the details of his pick in the presentation. Instead, he details the company in a report called “How to Invest in Tesla’s Secret Supplier.”

And the only way to get that is to join The Near Future Report.

However, I looked into the clues Jeff Brown shared to see what I could find. And, long story short, I found a company that matched, which I’ll share with you in this post.

But first, let’s unpack his “S.A.V. project” teaser…

What Is SAV? Elon Musk’s “Next Big Project?”

Jeff Brown’s presentation centers around the idea that “Elon Musk’s next big project,” which he calls “S.A.V.,” is part of what he believes will be the “biggest trend of the 2020s.”

“… this S.A.V. project is part of what will be the biggest trend of the 2020s.”

What’s it about? After hyping up the potential of the so-called SAV project, Jeff Brown eventually revealed that S.A.V. stands for Shared Autonomous Vehicle.

“This is all part of Elon Musk’s new project…

S.A.V.

It stands for Shared Autonomous Vehicle…

And it could put an extra $30,000 in your pocket every year.”

What’s a Shared Autonomous Vehicle? And what does it have to do with Musk?

According to pcmag.com, the term Shared Autonomous Vehicle relates to Elon Musk’s proposed robotaxi service, a service where future Tesla owners may be able to put their self-driving Tesla in “SAV mode” and make it available for others to use as a taxi service.

So, the general idea is that, thanks to self-driving vehicle technology, it may eventually be possible to “share” your car with others while you’re not using it to generate revenue.

And that’s what the whole “put an extra $30,000 in your pocket every year” part of Jeff Brown’s presentation is based on. He’s essentially saying that a Shared Autonomous Vehicle could generate income to the tune of “about $30,000 in gross profit per year.”

“This S.A.V. project will change everything…

It could even put an extra $30,000 in your pocket every year.”

[…]

“Imagine that… your car becomes an asset, literally generating income for you every day.

That’s what’s called a Shared Autonomous Vehicle.

And that’s exactly what Elon Musk is planning for Tesla.

You’ll pay less than $50,000 for a Tesla…

But once that car is part of the robotaxi network, it could generate about $30,000 in gross profit per year…”

Where did he get that figure from?

Jeff Brown appears to be referring to how, in 2019, Elon Musk estimated that Tesla owners “could expect to earn $30,000 per year” by lending their car to the network.

In any case, Jeff Brown seems to think “SAV” has a lot of potential. In fact, it was one of the main topics he discussed in a series of posts about his predictions for 2022:

“The idea of a SAV network is really Tesla’s masterstroke. We can imagine driving our car to work… Once we get to our destination, we could instruct our Tesla to ‘join the fleet.’ The Tesla would then provide ride-hailing services while we’re at work and it would return to us at the end of the day.

Historically, cars have been depreciating assets. But with a SAV network? Our car literally becomes an income generator.”

Source: https://www.brownstoneresearch.com/bleeding-edge/jeff-browns-prediction-series-one-step-closer-to-teslas-masterstroke

When does Jeff Brown predict this will happen?

According to the same article I just shared, he seems to think that it’s on the horizon, but we won’t see the so-called SAV network become a reality in 2022 due to regulatory hurdles.

“Will we get there in 2022? I don’t think we’re there just yet. And the reason has nothing to do with Tesla. I fully expect Tesla will have all the necessary technology in place to make a SAV network a reality. However, Tesla is still going to need regulatory approval. This is really the last hurdle.

But once the regulatory approval is taken care of, Tesla’s SAV network will launch shortly after. One day soon, we’ll hail a cab and find nobody sitting in the driver’s seat. The car will literally be driving itself.”

That seems to line up with what Musk has said, too.

According to techcrunch.com, “Tesla plans to bring a dedicated robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals to market by 2024.”

At the end of the day, it’s impossible to predict when (or even if) any of this will play out. But a world where self-driving cars are the norm seems inevitable at this point. So it may eventually be possible to generate some extra cash as an AV owner.

In any case, that pretty much sums up what the whole “SAV project” thing is about. It’s basically a term Jeff Brown uses to describe a robotaxi service that Tesla’s Elon Musk is aspiring to launch in the years ahead.

As for the stock Jeff Brown is teasing, he said it’s a “little-known company” that’s supplying Elon with a “key piece of technology” that’s making this project possible.

“I’m also going to tell you about a little-known company that’s supplying Elon with a key piece of technology that’s making this new project possible.

Now, Elon Musk is very secretive about his suppliers.

But after months of research looking into public information, I finally found a company that’s behind this new project.”

In the next section, I’ll break down the clues Jeff Brown shared about his pick in the presentation and show you what company I think he’s teasing.

What Is “Tesla’s Secret Supplier?” (Uncovering Jeff Brown’s SAV Stock Pick)

Aside from saying that the company he’s teasing is a Tesla supplier, Jeff Brown dropped numerous clues about the company that can help us narrow it down.

First, he described it as an “early-stage company.”

“I’m here today because most people still don’t know about this new project — S.A.V. — and the early-stage company that’s making it possible.”

Second, he described what the company supposedly makes for Tesla (image sensors):

“You see, these Tesla cars have a camera mounted behind the windshield.

It’s that camera that provides visibility in front of the car. It captures front images over up to 250 meters.

And those cameras use this image sensor I’m holding in my hand.

Like I said before, normally Tesla is very secretive about its suppliers.

Good luck finding that information on their website or even on their SEC filings.

But after countless hours of research…

I found the company that’s making these sensors for Tesla.”

As you can see above, Jeff Brown said that Teslas use this company’s image sensor, and during the presentation, he held up one of these sensors:

What else did he say? Jeff Brown also said that the company is “trading for a price that’s 95% cheaper” than Tesla.

“While shares of Tesla are trading above $700…

The company behind this tech is trading for a price that’s 95% cheaper.”

Based on that clue, the company he’s teasing was trading at around $35 a share at the time the presentation was made (the publish date for this teaser was March 2021).

And here’s a summary of the remaining clues Jeff Brown shared:

“Fortune magazine even named it one of the fastest growing companies in America.”

[…]

“This company makes more than 10,000 other car products, mainly semiconductors…

Including power semiconductors that help bring the cost of batteries down.”

[…]

“Well, this company is also supplying General Motors.”

What’s Jeff Brown’s pick?

After researching a bunch of different companies and coming across this Green Bull Research article, I narrowed my search to three companies: OmniVision Technologies (owned by Will Semiconductor), STMicroelectronics, and ON Semiconductor Corp.

Each of the above companies is in the semiconductor space, makes image sensors for EVs, is (or at least has been) a Tesla supplier, and (rough ballpark) matches the “95% cheaper” clue Jeff Brown shared at the time the presentation was released (March 2021).

However, after taking a closer look at Jeff Brown’s clues and researching what image sensors were used in the Tesla Model 3 (which is the car Brown was driving), I stumbled across this 2020 article on eetasia.com, which states that Tesla “has developed a tri-camera module with three On Semiconductor image sensors” for its forward vision.

ON Semiconductor Corporation (AKA onsemi) is a Phoenix-based semiconductor supplier company that, among many other things, makes image sensors for EV cameras.

And aside from matching the clues I just mentioned, the company has been named to the Fortune Fastest-Growing Companies list twice (2018 and 2019). It also matches Jeff Brown’s clue about General Motors. According to a November 2021 Bloomberg article, GM is working with ON Semiconductor Corp (among other companies) to develop chips for its cars.

So, Jeff Brown’s SAV stock appears to be ON Semiconductor Corp. (ticker: ON).

What about the other two companies?

The above Bloomberg article also said that GM is working with STMicroelectronics NV, which, considering the other clues it lines up with, makes it a very close potential match. However, I haven’t been able to find anything to suggest that this company makes image sensors for Tesla. Nor does it appear to match Jeff Brown’s “Fortune magazine” clue.

As for OmniVision Technologies (a private company owned by Will Semiconductor), this company’s image sensor was selected by Tesla to support its rear-view camera system in the Model S. It also matches some of the other clues Jeff Brown shared. So it’s close, but overall doesn’t appear to be a match.

Bottom line, ON Semiconductor (AKA onsemi) is my guess.

If you want to find out what company Jeff Brown’s teasing for sure, the best idea would be to see his report called “How to Invest in Tesla’s Secret Supplier.” And as mentioned in the intro, the only way to access that is to subscribe to The Near Future Report.

What Is The Near Future Report?

The Near Future Report is Jeff Brown’s flagship tech-focused newsletter service that provides subscribers with his latest investment insights and recommendations.

The service “retails” for $199, but virtually every presentation I’ve looked into, including this one, allows you to join for $49 for the first year and auto-renews at a higher price after that.

As a subscriber, you get access to the report I mentioned earlier that breaks down Jeff Brown’s SAV project (“secret supplier”) recommendation, reports detailing other companies he’s tracking, a monthly newsletter, a model portfolio, and other resources.

The types of companies Jeff Brown focuses on vary, but he mostly seems to recommend tech and biotech companies. I’m not a member of the service, but I have looked into over a dozen of his presentations and uncovered numerous stocks he’s teased in the process.

For example, some of his picks have related to 5G, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, DNA sequencing, and crypto. And just recently, I looked into a potential “Apple Car” supplier he teased, which was similar to this one in some respects.

Is it legit?

I don’t believe the service is a scam; however, no service is guaranteed to make you money, so it’s possible you could lose money following the recommendations you receive as a subscriber. And I suggest taking the marketing with a pinch of salt because no matter how good some of Brown’s past picks may have been, he doesn’t have a crystal ball.

Bottom Line

Jeff Brown’s “S.A.V.” presentation centers around the idea that Shared Autonomous Vehicles could be the “future of transportation” and generate revenue for people who own them.

This is a similar idea that other well-known gurus have pitched lately, too. For example, I’ve written about Ian King’s MaaS (Mobility as a Service) and Whitney Tilson’s TaaS (Transportation as a Service) predictions, which are both based on a similar premise.

As for the company that Jeff Brown says is “supplying Tesla” with image sensors, this appears to be onsemi. That’s ultimately a guess, though, so I can’t say for sure I’m right. But this company seems to match Jeff Brown’s clues the closest.

In any case, that’s my take on all of this. I hope you found it helpful, and if you want to share your take on any of this, chime in below. Thanks for reading!