Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
Elon Musk’s wealth has skyrocketed to nearly $450 billion with Tesla’s stock price soaring to new heights. Musk’s net worth is now valued at $447 billion, making him possibly the richest person in modern history.
He's also now almost $200 billion wealthier than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who's second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with $249 billion.
The astronomical surge follows a year of relentless growth for the electric vehicle maker, whose shares have jumped 71-per-cent year-to-date to hit $424.88, most of that rise coming after Donald Trump’s US election victory.
Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder with a 13-per-cent stake, took to X to celebrate Tesla’s latest price leap. “As foretold in the prophecy,” he quipped, sharing a screenshot of the stock price.
The stock’s trajectory has been nothing short of electric with Wednesday’s close marking the first time Tesla has crossed $420 since a 2022 stock split.
Now, the question is whether Musk’s next big innovations will keep him ahead, or could rivals catch up?
Adding fuel to Tesla’s share price rise has been Musk’s appointment to Trump’s advisory council, placing him at the heart of government decision-making and giving him a direct route to influence energy, technology, and infrastructure policies.
Tesla’s stock has risen 67 per cent or $168 a share since the November 5 election, adding approximately $555 billion to the company’s market value while Musk’s fortune has swelled by around $136 billion.
Adding another massive boost to Musk's wealth has come from the privately owned venture, SpaceX, now valued at a staggering $350 billion. Musk is said to own 42 per cent of the firm.
The political divide surrounding the billionaire genius has only deepened since Trump’s win, sparking reactions from Tesla owners as well. In California where 70 per cent of Teslas are sold domestically, some drivers have jokingly slapped stickers on their cars that read, “Don’t blame me. I bought this car before Musk went nuts.”
That hasn’t stopped Wall Street from betting big on Tesla’s innovation. But while Tesla remains a key pillar of Musk’s fortune, it’s his rocket company, SpaceX, that’s breaking through the stratosphere. Known for its reusable rockets and a fleet of 7,000 Starlink satellites, SpaceX dominates US space launches with an amazing 99 per cent success rate across 421 missions.
Starlink, its satellite internet service, has raked in $3 billion in profits this year alone, thanks to 5 million subscribers worldwide. The company’s innovations – like using mechanical arms to physically grab and stabilise rockets during landing so that they can be reused and keep costs down – have outpaced rivals such as the European Space Agency .
Tesla’s meteoric rise mirrors the broader tech sector’s rally. The Nasdaq Composite has smashed past 20,000 for the first time, propelled by AI hype and expectations of deregulation under the new US administration.
Morgan Stanley analysts now wave Tesla as their top pick for 2025, citing the company's leadership in self-driving vehicle technology and robotics.
The tech boom has also enriched Musk’s peers. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison have seen their fortunes swell, with Zuckerberg’s net worth climbing to $224 billion after Facebook’s AI pivot
The only non-tech wealth champion at the top of the charts is LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, the French luxury czar who owns a sparkling collection of brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Bvlgari, Tiffany & Co and TAG Heuer.
Covid-19 was superlative for luxury brands and Arnault was the wealth chart topper till as recently as April this year. He’s now down to fifth position, worth $181 billion.
The coming AI revolution and the Nasdaq soaring to new heights means that tech stars occupy eight out of 10 places at the top of the wealth charts. The only two non-tech names at the chart’s top are Arnault and investment guru Warren Buffett who’s worth $144 billion.
The catapulting US market means that even our homegrown stars have been pushed down the charts slightly. Mukesh Ambani is still Asia’s richest man worth $97.1 billion but he’s down from 11th position some months ago to the 17th spot now.
Similarly, Gautam Adani, who has been buffeted by reports about the US Justice Department report against him, is in 19th spot worth $79.3 billion.
Tesla’s market value now tops a record $1.3 trillion. The company plans to release a lower-priced EV and launch a self-driving robo-taxi service by 2025, which could push Tesla shares higher.
Analyst Gary Black of Future Fund Active ETF told Barron’s these initiatives could push Tesla’s stock to $480. “If go-anywhere unsupervised (self-driving) becomes reality, Tesla will remain untouchable,” Black says.
As SpaceX revolutionises space travel and Tesla reshapes the automotive industry, could anything stop Musk? Tesla’s stock took a 50 per cent dive a year after its last peak in 2021, impacted by falling EV prices, rising interest rates, and Musk’s controversial purchase of X.
Still, with its aggressive innovations Tesla could keep driving the EV revolution – and Musk’s fortune – into uncharted territory.
