Elon Musk has become the first person to reach US$400-billion in net worth, the latest milestone for the world’s richest person.
The most recent catalyst was an insider share sale of his privately held SpaceX, which boosted South African-born Musk’s net worth by roughly $50-billion in one fell swoop to $439.2-billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk’s fortune has staged a dramatic turnaround since late 2022, when at one point he saw his net worth drop by more than $200-billion. But it’s been especially turbocharged of late after Donald Trump’s election win last month, with Musk being his most prominent political donor and advocate.
Tesla’s stock is up about 65% since just before the election, buoyed by expectations that Trump will streamline the roll-out of self-driving cars and eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles that help Tesla’s competitors. Musk is slated to occupy a key role in the new administration as co-head of the newly created department of government efficiency, giving him a bully pulpit in Washington and a direct line to the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, the value of his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, has more than doubled since it last raised money in May to $50-billion, with The Wall Street Journal reporting last month that Trump’s victory helped drive new interest.
On Wednesday, SpaceX and its investors agreed to purchase $1.25-billion of shares from employees and other company insiders. The deal, which values the privately held space exploration firm at about $350-billion, makes SpaceX the most valuable private start-up in the world.
Trump card
The company makes most of its money on contracts with the US government and can likely depend on more support under a Trump administration. The president-elect lauded Musk’s vision of putting astronauts on Mars in campaign speeches and joined Musk at a SpaceX launch in Texas shortly after the election.
Jared Isaacman, Trump’s pick for Nasa head, is a billionaire tech executive who made the first commercial spacewalk on a chartered SpaceX launch in September. He praised the company as “the most innovative, literally impressive organisation that I’ve ever seen” last month after investing $27.5-million in SpaceX through his payments firm in 2021.
Read: Musk, Ramaswamy to lead US department of government efficiency
Musk, 53, was handed a piece of bad news last week when a Delaware judge struck down his 2018 Tesla pay package, currently valued at more than $100-billion, for a second time. Tesla said it would appeal the decision, which Musk described as “absolute corruption” on X. Even if Musk’s compensation award is ultimately clawed back, he would still be the world’s richest person by a long shot. — Dylan Sloan, with Tom Maloney and Jack Witzig, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP
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