BACK IN 2012, when Andreas Feiner and his colleagues at asset-management startup Arabesque first began pitching investors about including environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) in their investing decisions, they encountered plenty of skepticism, not to mention eye rolls, sidelong glances, and crooked looks. Investors, recalls Feiner, believed that “if you do something right, you have to pay for it” by accepting smaller profits and lower returns.

For years, investors have speculated about Apple buying or partnering with Tesla, considering the former’s ambitions in autonomous car technology and the latter’s potential need for additional cash to fund its operations. Both companies have something that the other needs.

The bull market turns 3,453 days old on Wednesday. It’s the longest period of uninterrupted gains in American history.

The remarkable run began on March 9, 2009, in the ashes of the Great Recession and the scariest financial crisis since the 1930s.