The wind of fortune blew Tesla’s stock to shoot CEO Elon Musk up to the top of the billionaires’ leaderboard once again on Monday. Tesla’s stock surged to Musk’s worth at $200 billion, making him the third person ever to hit that record, Forbes reports.
Since June, Tesla has been on a high profit ride that has seen its shares closing up 2.2% at $791.36, the highest they’ve been since February this year. Following the electric vehicle’s rally, Musk added $3.8 billion to his fortune on Monday, putting his worth at $203.4 billion at the close of markets.
Musk’s new milestone comes after his billionaire and space shuttle rival, Jeff Bezos suffered a $1 billion loss due to a 0.6% stock decline in his e-commerce company Amazon. Now Bezos has fallen behind Musk in the billionaires’ index.
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Musk is now the third person to reach the $200 billion threshold. Bezos hit the mark in August last year, while the third person on the list, luxury magnate Bernard Arnault, briefly hit the record in September.
Forbes report explained how Musk attained the billionaires’ elite status now, and why not in the past when Tesla’s stock was above $700.
Musk is richer now than he was at Tesla’s peak in January—when he briefly became the world’s richest tycoon for the first time—because he’s received additional stock option grants that have increased his stake in Tesla; he has about 73.5 million Tesla options worth about $53 billion. Musk owns more than one-fifth of Tesla; Forbes discounts a portion of this stake to account for shares he has pledged as collateral for loans.
Musk’s fortune is heavily tied to his ownership of Tesla, which ended the day Monday with a market cap of more than $792 billion, and SpaceX, which was valued at $74 billion after a funding round in February. After promising last year that he would ditch almost all his personal possessions, including six mansions, he now owns one house and counts his primary residence to be a 400-square foot rental unit.
Shares in Tesla rocketed up more than 720% in 2020, helping to increase Musk’s net worth by more than $125 billion in a year. After trading places with Bezos as the world’s richest person for several days in January, Tesla stock began to decline. By April, Musk was surpassed by Arnault as well.
The unusually frequent shuffling atop the billionaire leaderboard continued last month, when Musk became second richest again, trailing only Bezos.
Musk’s wealth is expected to increase soon following the launch of Tesla’s gigafactory in Berlin. Musk said the company will begin production of its Model Y cars before the year ends. The factory is expected to produce between 5,000 and 10,000 vehicles weekly by the end of 2022.
“We’re aiming to start production in a few months, basically, November or December, and hopefully deliver our first cars in December,” said Musk at the launch of the gigafactory.
Tesla said the Berlin factory will aim to produce up to 500,000 cars a year and have 12,000 employees at the plant.