Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks at a Tesla product launch event held in Los Angeles, California, USA on October 10, 2024.
Source: Tesla | YouTube
tesla CEO Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, added another $26 billion to his paper wealth on Thursday after the company’s stock posted its biggest rise since 2013.
According to Forbes, Musk is now worth about $269 billion, more than $50 billion more than his friend and former Tesla director Larry Ellison. Ellison remains Tesla’s largest shareholder. oracle.
Musk controls nearly 13% of Tesla’s outstanding shares, making up the bulk of his net worth, but he also owns the majority of SpaceX, which is valued at more than $200 billion on the private market. are. Additionally, he is the managing owner of X (formerly Twitter) and artificial intelligence startup xAI.
A shareholder lawsuit over Musk’s 2018 compensation package is pending in court, and depending on the outcome, Musk’s wealth could increase further.
Thursday’s announcement follows Tesla’s better-than-expected earnings report late Wednesday and comments from Musk in a conference call suggesting “vehicle growth” will be 20% to 30% next year. It belonged to Tesla shares soared 22% at the close, the second biggest gain since the company’s IPO in 2010.
Before the earnings release, Tesla stock was in the doldrums and on the verge of its worst month since January. However, the stock has erased this year’s losses and is up 5% in 2024 compared to the Nasdaq’s 23% rise.
Tesla reported earnings of 72 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 58 cents. Earnings were boosted by $739 million in revenue from environmental regulatory credits and $326 million in revenue from FSD, the company’s fully autonomous driving monitoring system.
Mr. Musk spent much of the earnings call touting promises about Tesla’s self-driving future, including a ride-hailing service that he says will be available to the public in Texas and California as early as next year. Two weeks ago, Tesla held its much-anticipated robotaxi event, where it unveiled its CyberCab concept.
However, on the other hand, of the alphabet Waymo has been operating its commercial driverless driving service to the public since June, but Tesla has consistently missed its own predictions for bringing the product to market. The company still does not manufacture or sell a car that can be safely used without a human at the wheel and that can be steered or braked at any time.
And while Musk announced both a heavy-duty semi-truck and a refreshed Roadster model in 2017, the Roadster’s design has not yet been finalized and the company is only in “test production” of the Semi.
One topic Musk did not mention during Wednesday’s conference call was his campaign and large spending to support Donald Trump.
Since publicly supporting Trump shortly after the first assassination attempt on the former president in July, Musk has become especially vocal about X and has joined several political action committees supporting Republican candidates. Donating millions of dollars.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks with former President Donald Trump during the Butler Farm Show campaign event on Saturday, October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Javin Botsford | Washington Post | Getty Images
Musk is campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, which he calls the “lynchpin” of this election. He announced over the weekend that he would randomly give away $1 million a day to registered voters who signed a pro-Trump PAC petition to get fans in battleground states to the polls.
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned the PAC that Musk’s voter sweepstakes could violate federal election law, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday.
Prior to the earnings release, many investors had questions about Musk’s political activities.
“While Elon Musk is entitled to express his political views, his public activities appear to be inconsistent with his responsibility as CEO to protect shareholder value,” said an anonymous private investor. House wrote on a forum Tesla uses to solicit questions from investors. “How will Tesla address this issue? And will it ensure that Mr. Musk’s actions do not negatively impact sales or growth?”
Before the call, this comment had 168 upvotes. Another question, which received 527 yes votes, asked if Tesla’s board could do anything to “protect shareholder value and brand integrity without letting Musk’s political involvement undermine Tesla’s core mission.” It was a question of whether or not he was.
“I believe this election is existential for America,” Musk said in a post on X earlier this week.
WATCH: I was surprised at how little technology was mentioned during Musk and Trump’s conversation
