Elon Musk sees net worth soar, approaching $300bn — with insight from The Wall Street Journal

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk is the world’s richest individual. Born in Pretoria, Musk has taken the world by storm. The 50-year-old is currently worth $292bn, according to the Bloomberg index, which surpasses the formal title holder, Jeff Bezos, by a considerable margin. Bezos’ net worth now sits at a still-impressive $196.3bn. Musk is widely credited for popularising the electric car, through his innovative Tesla. The California-based company through tech and desirability has grown immeasurably, lighting a fire under established manufacturers to develop and market competitive electric vehicles. As an example, Tesla’s Model 3 pipped more traditional vehicles, topping the sales charts in Europe, a first for an electric vehicle. The entry-level Tesla also recently made headlines when Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Model 3s. The climb in Mr Musk’s net worth comes after Tesla’s market capitalisation on Monday topped $1trn for the first time. Car-rental company Hertz Global said it ordered 100,000 of Tesla’s electric vehicles, prompting Tesla shares to jump 13% that day,” writes The Wall Street Journal. – Jarryd Neves, Motoring correspondent

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Elon Musk’s Net Worth Approaches $300 Billion

Billionaire’s wealth has soared as Tesla’s market cap recently surpassed $1 trillion

Updated Oct. 27, 2021 4:35 pm ET

Elon Musk ‘s net worth is approaching $300 billion, putting him tens of billions of dollars ahead of the rest of the world’s richest people.

The Tesla Inc. TSLA 3.78% chief executive’s wealth on paper was $287 billion as of Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking updated daily of the richest people in the world. By comparison, Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos –the second richest person–has a net worth of $196 billion.

Mr. Musk’s wealth is more than double that of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg index. Establishing the exact net worth of the world’s wealthiest can be tricky, in part because many of their holdings are private.

Mr. Musk’s individual wealth is currently higher than the market values of all but 21 of the companies in the S&P 500, according to Dow Jones Market Data as of Wednesday morning.

As Mr. Musk’s net worth has risen, he has also been critical of the proposed new capital-gains tax in President Biden’s social-spending and climate-change legislation. The plan would represent a tax on billionaires’ unrealized gains, meaning they would be taxed on the rising value of assets regardless of whether they were sold or not. This would effectively eliminate billionaires’ ability to defer capital-gains taxes indefinitely.

“Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” Mr. Musk wrote on Twitter earlier this week, responding to another Twitter user suggesting that any new unrealized capital-gains taxes will eventually hurt middle class retirement investments.

Proponents say the proposal, if implemented, would likely generate a large chunk of revenue from the wealthiest taxpayers, many of whom currently can keep their reported income and tax bills low.  “The Billionaires Income Tax would ensure billionaires pay tax every year, just like working Americans,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D., Ore.). “No working person in America thinks it’s right that they pay their taxes and billionaires don’t.”

The climb in Mr. Musk’s net worth comes after Tesla’s market capitalization on Monday topped $1 trillion for the first time. Car-rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said it ordered 100,000 of Tesla’s electric vehicles, prompting Tesla shares to jump 13% that day.

Tesla is one of five U.S. companies currently with a market value of more than $1 trillion, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

In addition to Tesla, Mr. Musk is co-founder and chief executive of privately held space-exploration company SpaceX, which last month launched four civilians into space. SpaceX had a valuation close to $100 billion earlier this year.

SpaceX and Mr. Musk both own bitcoin, he has said.

Additionally, Mr. Musk runs Boring Co., which seeks to build high-speed, underground transportation.

He previously co-founded the online-payments company that later became PayPal. Online marketplace eBay Inc. bought PayPal for $1.4 billion, and Mr. Musk made over $100 million from the deal.

Mr. Musk’s recent rise in net worth is notable because he accumulated $117 billion of it this year alone, according to Bloomberg’s index. The net worth of Mr. Bezos, meanwhile, has climbed by $5.2 billion since the beginning of the year.

Both Amazon and Tesla didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comments from Messrs. Bezos and Musk.

Mr. Musk’s net worth overtook that of Mr. Bezos in early January of this year, when the value of Tesla’s shares had gained almost 8% in one day.

Earlier this month, Mr. Musk prodded Mr. Bezos over the Amazon founder’s No. 2 ranking, when he responded to a tweet by Mr. Bezos with an emoji of a silver medal showing the number two. Mr. Bezos’ tweet referenced an old article about Amazon doubting the company’s business model.

Write to Allison Prang at [email protected]

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Appeared in the October 28, 2021, print edition.

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