Elon Musk eyeing payday after scientists discover $1.5T lithium deposit

There is no shortage of lithium. It's a shortage of active mines, and a price to buy the lithium which sustains extraction. Australia has a massive amount of spodumine, an igneous rock alternative to the water deposited lithium found in Chile. and elsewhere.

We really don't have a lithium shortage. Musk will profit from this as long as the chemistry of batteries favours lithium for energy density. If BYD's alternate battery chemistries take off at scale, the amount of lithium needed might change is all.

Also, Musks battery tech is (as far as I know) a joint-venture with other companies. He doesn't have an exclusive, the flow processes to manufacture canned batteries is his big investment but it's with somebody like Panasonic. He may be moving off this, diversified, but it's not like only Musk benefits from cheaper Lithium, or that it will alter his intent to pricing EV in the short term: BYD are eating his lunch with significantly cheaper EV, and they have the same lithium need Tesla does.