NEW YORK – Elon Musk added US$33.5 billion (S$44.2 billion) to his net worth on Oct 24 as Tesla shares posted their biggest gain in more than a decade, extending the world’s richest person’s lead atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Tesla shares ended the day up 22 per cent and turned positive for the year after the company reported its largest quarterly profit since the summer of 2023. Mr Musk forecast as much as 30 per cent growth in vehicle sales next year on a webcast following the release, and announced that the Cybertruck generated a quarterly profit for the first time.
The pop came after four straight quarters of disappointing earnings for the world’s largest EV maker, which has struggled amid slowing consumer demand.
Mr Musk’s wealth gain was his third-largest ever and brought his fortune to US$270.3 billion, US$61 billion ahead of second-place Jeff Bezos. Tesla shares and options account for about three-quarters of his fortune, which also includes large stakes in SpaceX, social-media platform X and artificial-intelligence firm xAI.
Mr Musk, 53, has also been in the spotlight for his increasingly vocal – and costly – support of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Over the past few weeks, he has campaigned in Pennsylvania alongside Trump and spent US $75 million on his own super PAC, which has focused on funding Republican get-out-the-vote efforts and digital advertising.
Mr Trump has said he would ask Mr Musk to head up a new department focused on minimizing bureaucratic red tape, nicknamed the Department of Government Efficiency, if he were elected to a second term.
In the webcast following Tesla’s earnings release, Mr Musk said he would push for a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles if he were appointed to a role in a potential second Trump administration.
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