TOPLINE
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, grew his net worth by $10.5 billion Wednesday, a 4.2% increase, on the back of an approximately 6% jump in Tesla’s stock, which comprises a vast majority of his wealth—putting his total riches at $260.4 billion.
KEY FACTS
Tesla’s 5.9% increase brought the share price to about $261 for the stock when markets closed Wednesday afternoon.
This comes despite a report released Monday that showed a 7% decline in vehicle deliveries during the third quarter, something the company blamed on factories being temporarily shut down for upgrades.
Still, investors bet on a fourth-quarter rebound with the launch of a revamped Model 3 car in China and the expected launch of the Cybertruck, according to Investor’s Business Daily.
KEY BACKGROUND
Musk first jumped into the top spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List in September 2021. “I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” he told Forbes after overtaking Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—who, with a $149.8 billion estimated net worth, is now No. 3—for the spot. Recently, he and French fashion mogul Bernard Arnault have been flipping back and forth between the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, though Musk has maintained his spot as No. 1 in recent weeks. Around $170.6 billion of his $260.4 billion net worth comes in the form of Tesla stock. Other significant assets include his 42% stake in SpaceX, which amounts to $60.2 billion, and his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, which is now worth $8.9 billion (he purchased the social media platform for $44 billion). Forbes estimates he has $5.2 billion in cash and other liquid assets.
TANGENT
Musk has given away a meager fraction of his wealth to charitable causes, Forbes has found. Forbes estimates Musk, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, has donated $281 million over his lifetime to charitable causes, which is less than 1% of his net worth as of September 2023. Though, he’s not alone among America’s richest in his lack of philanthropy. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang and 124 others on Forbes’ 400 list have all given away less than 1% of their wealth. Of the 400 richest Americans, only a handful have given away more than 20% of their wealth: John Arnold, Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Amos Hostetter Jr., Pierre Omidyar, MacKenzie Scott, Lynn Schusterman, Jeff Skoll and George Soros.