The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, already considered the richest man on the planet, has exceeded 400 billion dollars in fortune, a first, reports Bloomberg. Tesla’s stock price has risen more than 65% since Donald Trump’s election in early November, according to Bloomberg. Separately, SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy up to $1.25 billion in company stock, pushing the space company’s value to around $350 billion. This transaction increased Elon Musk’s personal fortune by approximately $50 billion, bringing it to $440 billion, according to Bloomberg.
“What’s really incredible is that almost no investors wanted to sell their shares, even at a value of $350 billion!” Elon Musk commented on X.
Soon the first billionaire in history?
As pointed out BFMTVSpaceX is now worth more than very powerful listed companies such as LVMH (335 billion dollars), Coca Cola (271 billion) or even Samsung (249 billion). Last September, a report published by Informa Connect Academy also estimated that Elon Musk’s fortune could exceed $1,000 billion in 2027, which would make him the first billionaire in history.
Now close to Donald Trump, Elon Musk has become the largest political donor in recent American history with more than $270 million paid during the presidential campaign to support the Republican, according to figures from the US Election Commission (FEC) . This sum is the largest from a single non-candidate donor, according to data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that “tracks money in politics and its effects on policy.”
Elon Musk’s proximity to Trump has raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest, including fears that the new administration will eliminate tax credits on electric vehicles competing with Tesla. The winner of the American presidential election rewarded him by appointing him to head a commission for “governmental efficiency”, a body created to cut federal budgets.