Elon Musk has overtaken Bill Gates to become the second richest person In the world, behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos according to Bloomberg billionaires index
Mr. Musk’s net worth jumped by $7.2bn (£5.4bn) to $128bn after shares in his car firm Tesla surged.
Thanks to the sudden surge in Tesla’s valuation in the market. The company gained 5.1% to $548.53 per share in Tuesday’s trading as the company’s valuation has crossed the $500 B mark for the first time.
The surge comes after the news that Tesla’s shares will be added to the S&P, one of the main shares index in the US.
After the news, Wallstreet turned bullish on the company and a new wave of buying triggered despite the worry of availability of sourcing of raw materials for the carmakers.
Tesla is already the world’s most valued car makers, even though they make only a small number of cars compared to the motor giants such as Ford or Toyota. Musk’s dream has always been to build small electric cars for the mass market from day one. Although it didn’t start so, when the first model of Tesla- Tesla Roadster came out it was a high-end electric sports car only the elite could afford, costing a whopping $109,000 including a tax credit of $7500 for buying an electric car. But the Roadster was true to its price, it could put many of the gasoline-powered sports cars of the day into shame with a top speed of 125 miles per hour and an acceleration of 0-60 under 4 seconds.
But the visionary Elon Musk was moving step by step into his dream. In a recent conference in Germany Musk has spoken about his intention of expanding Tesla into Europe as well as third world countries such as India.
Musk said “In the US, the cars tend to be bigger for personal taste reasons,” he said. “In Europe, (they) tend to be smaller.”
And after years of losses, Tesla has seen five consecutive quarters of profit as sales of its cars perform well despite the pandemic.