Billionaire Elon Musk's fortune exceeds 450 billion USD

The world's richest billionaire Elon Musk has just set a new record when he became the first person in history to have a net worth exceeding 450 billion USD on the morning of December 17 (Vietnam time). Previously on December 12, Elon Musk's assets reached the 400 billion USD mark for the first time. Elon Musk is predicted to be the first person to have assets of 1,000 billion USD.

Elon Musk (born 1971) is a billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder of 7 companies, including electric car company Tesla, rocket manufacturer SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI, neurotechnology company Neuralink...

According to Forbes, as of the morning of December 17, Elon Musk had assets of 454.5 billion USD, far surpassing the second richest person in the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with 246 billion USD.

Musk’s net worth has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and has skyrocketed recently after Donald Trump won the presidential election. The tech billionaire publicly endorsed Trump in July and has since poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Republican candidate’s campaign.

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Tesla stock price movements over the past 6 months. Source: YH

Mr. Musk's fortune increased sharply not only thanks to the rise of Tesla's stock, but also thanks to the artificial intelligence startup xAI, and the private aerospace company SpaceX achieving many great achievements, highly appreciated by organizations.

On December 11, SpaceX and investors agreed to buy back $1.25 billion in shares from insiders at a valuation of up to $350 billion.

Tesla's market capitalization jumped from 700 billion USD at the end of October to a historic peak of 1,450 billion USD on the morning of December 17, much higher than the second-largest car company, Toyota (with a market capitalization of 232 billion USD as of December 17), and about 15 times higher than the world's second-largest electric car company, Xiaomi (97 billion USD).

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Tesla's capitalization far exceeds other car companies. Source: CM

What are the prospects for Elon Musk's companies?

It can be seen that Elon Musk has a great influence in the world technology field and this is the strength that helps this billionaire stand out in politics and the global economy.

Elon Musk has turned things around after investors were worried about Tesla losing market share in China in early 2024. With his close relationship with Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk’s businesses will benefit from supportive policies for the aerospace sector, new technology, and even tax policy.

Even if the Trump administration escalates the trade war further, Elon Musk is expected to be able to influence policy and push for lower costs in importing Chinese-made parts for Tesla production.

During his campaign, Mr. Trump did not support clean energy, did not support electric vehicles, and promised to eliminate the $7,500 electric vehicle subsidy issued under Joe Biden. This policy is considered disadvantageous to Tesla in the short term, but invisibly helps Elon Musk's company maintain market share in the US, making it difficult for other car companies to penetrate.

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Elon Musk has a close relationship with US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: X-Donald Trump Jr

In addition, Tesla is said to have an advantage when betting on the future of fully autonomous driving technology. When Mr. Trump comes to power, it is very likely that the new owner of the White House will impact legal regulations in this field.

Mr. Musk has told stock analysts that he intends to use his influence with Mr. Trump to establish a “federal approval process for self-driving cars.” Currently, this technology is only approved at the state level in the US.

Previously, in mid-May, the US increased the tax rate from 25% to 100% on Chinese electric vehicles. On October 29, the European Union (EU) also increased the import tax on electric vehicles (EVs) from China to 35.3% compared to the previous 7.8%, plus the standard import tax rate of 10% for cars to 45.3%. Canada also recently took a strong hit with a tax rate of up to 100% on Chinese EVs.

Recently, many large corporations such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have raised their forecasts for Tesla's stock price, especially emphasizing the car company's expectations for applying AI technology.

China's financial market was shaken after two tax "declarations" from Mr. Trump . China's financial and monetary markets were shaken at the beginning of the new month after bad signals from the domestic economy and statements on the social network Truth Social by US President-elect Donald Trump.