Elon Musk is the world’s third-richest guy — for the moment at least.
Musk passed Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg Monday as Tesla Inc. shares resumed their implacable rally after a split in forwarding stock. At 11:25 a.m., Musk was worth $111.3 billion, compared to Zuckerberg’s $110.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Millionaires Ranking, which is revised at the end of each trading day.
Musk saw a meteoric increase in his fortune, with net worth rising this year by $76.1 billion as Tesla’s stock rose by over 475 percent. An audacious compensation package — the largest corporate compensation contract ever negotiated between a chief executive and a board of directors — that could deliver him over $50 billion if all targets are met.
Last week, the CEO of Tesla joined Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc., and Bill Gates in the rarified centibillionaire club as tech stocks surged.
In recent months the heady pace of wealth accumulation contrasts sharply with the state of the global economy. Employment has plunged sharply since the start of the pandemic with businesses laying off millions of employees and cratering market demand. Young and lower-wage employees, whose jobs are usually more vulnerable to COVID related layoffs, have suffered the brunt of economic pain.
Musk also has a long way to go to being the wealthiest person on earth. Bezos estimated around $200 billion.
Last week for the first time the car manufacturer, headed by Elon Musk, reached the mark of $2,000 per share, also after this year’s rally that sent shares to skyrocket. Tesla climbed up as much as 8 percent in intraday trading Thursday to touch $2,021.99 per share before paring some gains.
The surge propelled Tesla’s market capitalization to almost $372 billion, surpassing Walmart’s market valuation of about $371 billion. Earlier in the year, Tesla became the world’s most successful automaker after overshadowing the market value of Toyota.
This year, Tesla shares were on a tear, fuelled by strong vehicle delivery results, a streak of profitable quarters, and eligibility to be included in the popular S&P 500 index.
The Company announced its first 5-for-1 stock split earlier this month. Through shareholder will receive four additional shares for each of their own at the end of Friday’s trading, to be issued at the end of trading on August 28. On August 31 Tesla will start trading on a stock-split-adjusted basis.
