It’s good to be Elon Musk, at least from a financial perspective.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has become the world’s fourth-richest person according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Only Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are wealthier than him; Musk overtook LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, who will now have to suffer the fate of only being the world’s fifth-richest person.
Musk’s fortune increased sharply after the latest rally in Tesla stock, which closed on $1,650 Monday, close to a record high for the company. The Tesla stock pump on Monday alone boosted Musk’s fortune by $7.8 billion; overall, Musk’s fortune increased by $57.2 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg’s calculations.
Musk’s fortune is likely to increase by a lot in the near future, too. Based on premarket trading at writing time, Tesla stock is poised to open at $1,835 on Tuesday. And SpaceX, Bloomberg reports, is close to finalizing $2 billion in new funding, which would increase its valuation to $46 billion (the company was reportedly valued at $36 billion when it raised funding in February this year). Musk is a significant shareholder in both companies.
CEOs and founders of major tech companies did well overall, with Bezos, Gates, and Zuckerberg all increasing their fortunes this year. Zuckerberg hit the $100 billion mark for the first time, and Bezos is getting close to becoming the first person ever to be worth more than $200 billion. Even Gates, who founded Microsoft but is no longer actively involved with the company, saw his fortune boosted to $114 billion according to Forbes. And Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly became a billionaire earlier this month, thanks to Apple stock’s massive increase in price this year.