Elon Musk added $33.5 billion to his net worth Thursday as Tesla Inc. shares posted their biggest gain in more than a decade, extending the world's richest man's lead atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Shares ended the day up 22 per cent and turned positive for the year after the automaker reported its largest quarterly profit since the summer of 2023. 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 electric-vehicle manufacturer, which has struggled amid slowing consumer demand.
Musk's wealth gain was his third-largest ever and brought his fortune to $270.3 billion, $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.
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 $75 million on his own super PAC, which has focused on funding Republican get-out-the-vote efforts and digital advertising.
Trump has said he would ask 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, 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. Tesla is betting on autonomous vehicles as a key growth area. Musk said that he expects Tesla to begin rolling out Cybercab robotaxis in 2026 and plans for the company to eventually produce 2 million to 4 million units per year.
"My prediction is Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world, and probably by a long shot," Musk said.
