Elon Musk made his pockets full thanks to Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election. According to Bloomberg, the whimsical South African saw his fortune reach a stratospheric sum of $347.8 billion, jumping $130 billion in just one year. He thus becomes the richest man in history. The entrepreneur shatters his record from November 2021 (338 billion) and soars far ahead of other billionaires: Jeff Bezos, second in the ranking of the richest in the world, is “behind” Elon Musk by $100 billion.
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX invested nearly $130 million in Donald Trump’s campaign in October. A winning bet, since this sum could ultimately reach 200 million. And since the Republican’s victory, the Tesla company has grown by around 40%. Only a few hours after Donald Trump’s triumph, Elon Musk earned $15 billion thanks to the rise in his company’s shares. The next day, the fortune of Trump’s new friend jumped by approximately $26 billion.
Never have the assets of the great fortunes of the 20th and 19th centuries reached such a level. For example, oil tycoon John Rockefeller had a fortune estimated at more than $1 billion at the start of the 20th century, which is equivalent to $336 billion today. But the billionaires of the time had a monopoly on sectors such as energy (John Rockefeller), steel (Andrew Carnegie) or even automobiles (Henry Ford), explains BFMTV. This is not the case for Elon Musk: while Tesla holds 48% of the electric vehicle market share in the United States, this segment only represents 10% of total car sales.
Business
