Record weekly increase amounted to $37.3 billion
After an unstable period in early 2023, the personal fortune of the head of Tesla, SpaceX and X (Twitter), Elon Musk, is growing rapidly again. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, over the past five trading sessions on the stock exchanges, the third richest person on the planet today earned an impressive $37.3 billion. This is his largest weekly capital gain since March 2022 — just before Musk's fateful decision to buy the popular social network Twitter for a record $44 billion in one of the largest leveraged transactions.
The key factor was the sharp rise in the price of shares of Tesla, owned by Musk. Their price jumped 36.4% in three trading days after a series of positive news. First, it became known that Tesla has finally received long-awaited permission from the Chinese authorities to introduce its driver assistance system in the world's largest automobile market. Second, last Friday the company officially announced plans to introduce a more affordable electric vehicle model in 2023, easing investor concerns about a possible revenue decline due to declining demand.
According to Bloomberg estimates, just last Monday Musk increased his personal capital by $18.5 billion — This is the 13th largest daily gain for any billionaire on the global richest people's list. Currently, his fortune is estimated at $201.5 billion, and he is close to the second-place Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and has also overtaken the creator of the social networks Facebook and Instagram Mark Zuckerberg.
52-year-old Elon Musk derives his wealth primarily from his roughly 25% stake in Tesla, as well as his holdings in the aerospace company SpaceX and the social platform X (formerly Twitter). At the same time, despite the recent impressive rise, Tesla shares spent most of 2023 with the worst performance in the S&P 500 index against the backdrop of manufacturer-forced price cuts and an unexpected drop in deliveries of electric cars to consumers.
As for X, the value of this social network has collapsed by about 73% since its acquisition by Musk in October 2022, according to a March estimate by Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, which invested in the company together with the entrepreneur. But the value of SpaceX, on the contrary, from mid-2022 to the end of 2023 increased by more than 40%.
Musk faces a number of internal challenges that he will have to resolve in the near future. In particular, Tesla asked its own shareholders to re-vote on the $56 billion compensation package for the company's founder, previously annulled by a Delaware court. If shareholders again reject this package, then Musk faces the loss of options on Tesla shares, which make up almost a quarter of his personal capital, according to Bloomberg index estimates. Billionaires Index.
Thus, despite the renewed growth of his personal fortune, Elon Musk faces many difficult tasks, the solution of which will determine his future fate in the elite club of the richest people on the planet.