Elon Musk's net worth is soaring after falling to the lowest level in almost a year.
The world's third-richest person has gained $37.3 billion in net worth over the past five days, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's his biggest weekly gain since March 2022, just before he agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion in one of the largest leveraged buyout deals in history. Since then, his fortunes have plummeted as many times as they have risen after a breathtaking rise in 2020 and 2021.
The shares of Tesla Inc. rose the most in more than three years on Monday after reports that it received in-principle approval from Chinese officials to deploy its driver assistance system in the world's largest car market. That followed news last week that the electric vehicle maker plans to introduce a cheaper car as early as this year, easing concerns about disappointing revenues.
Musk added $18.5 billion to his fortune on Monday alone, the 13th largest market-driven daily gain for any billionaire on Bloomberg's wealth index and the seventh largest by Musk. With a net worth of $201.5 billion, he is close to overtaking second-place Jeff Bezos, after overtaking Mark Zuckerberg last week.
Musk, 52, derives his wealth primarily from his stake in Tesla, as well as his holdings in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and X, formerly known as Twitter.
Before the recent rally, Tesla was the worst-performing stock on the S&P 500 Index for much of the year, amid price cuts and a surprising drop in car deliveries. X's value, meanwhile, has fallen about 73% since Musk bought it two years ago, according to a March valuation from the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, which invested alongside him.
A bright spot for Musk's wealth is SpaceX, which gained more than 40 percent in value between mid-2022 and the end of 2023.
The billionaire is also under pressure in his own country. Tesla has asked shareholders to vote again on Musk's $56 billion compensation package, which was annulled by a court in Delware early this year. If rejected, Musk risks losing stock options that make up nearly a quarter of his wealth, according to Bloomberg's wealth index.
The US Supreme Court on Monday also rejected an appeal from Musk in his 'Twitter-sitter' case, leaving intact his agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to have an in-house lawyer pre-approve his social media posts about Tesla .
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