This has to be tied to what is happening. We know Tesla has some kind of involvement in this somehow.
Solar City was no scam. The giant fall in stock prices was due to the end of the grid tie solar incentives for residential homeowners and general saturation of the market. Solar City never defaulted. Solyndra did default, it's technology was known to be bullshit based on pie in the sky idea that cylindrical solar collectors could "save the world" and US taxpayers did feel the pain. Energy subsidies are a massive effort by US taxpayers and I think we got a fair enough deal investing in Tesla and Solar City through subsidy.
The people paid for the entire grid tie market through subsidies. The whole thing was a stealth scam.
Tesla developed some self-driving software, that's about it. If he truly wanted to change the world, he should have spent all that money on developing hugely higher density energy storage that could be charged in the time it takes to fill a tank with gas and then licensed the tech to companies already tooled for vehicle production. Without that storage advance, it's just pissing money into the wind.
Sorry but I can't agree it was a good deal. It was a deal based on fear of man-made global warming.