SA-born Elon Musk on his way to becoming the world’s richest person
South African-born businessman Elon Musk is slowly bouncing back to the title of the world's richest person yet again. This comes as the 51-year-old chief executive, whose net worth is largely wrapped up in Tesla stock, is close to recapturing the spot as the electric-vehicle maker's shares surge. Musk’s company, Tesla, went up 76% year-to-date
SA-born Elon Musk on his way to becoming the world’s richest person
South African-born businessman Elon Musk is slowly bouncing back to the title of the world’s richest person yet again.
This comes as the 51-year-old chief executive, whose net worth is largely wrapped up in Tesla stock, is close to recapturing the spot as the electric-vehicle maker’s shares surge.
Musk’s company, Tesla, went up 76% year-to-date amid a broader rally in the technology space and signs of growing demand for the company’s cars.
Musk could dethrone French business magnate Bernard Arnault, who is the founder of the world’s largest luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, who leapfrogged Musk in December while Tesla stock was on the decline.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk was worth $187 billion, as of February 14, just trailing Arnault’s $190 billion.
“But the margin is wider based on Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker, which puts Musk’s net worth at $197.9 billion and Arnault’s and his family’s at $216.8 billion,” reports Business Insider SA.
“The two billionaires found themselves in a similar situation last week, when Musk also came within $3 billion of surpassing Arnault, based on Bloomberg’s metric.
“This year’s rally in Tesla stock marks a dramatic reversal from last year, when it slumped 65% as rising interest rates dampened investors’ appetite for riskier bets and shareholders worried that Musk’s chaotic $44 billion takeover of Twitter would drag on Tesla’s share price. In addition, Musk sold more than $22.9 billion of Tesla shares to shore up funds during the takeover.”
However, BusinessTech Africa understands that since the beginning of 2023, investors have been cheered by growing faith that interest-rate cuts are coming and a strong fourth-quarter earnings report from Tesla that beat Wall Street forecasts.
The Twitter CEO’s net worth peaked at $300 billion two years ago and he is Tesla’s biggest individual shareholder and also owns an estimated 74% of Twitter.
Looking at some of his investments, Musk’s fortune includes SpaceX, the rocket developer he co-founded which notched a $127 billion valuation in May of 2022.
