The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, already considered the richest man on the planet, has exceeded $400 billion in fortune, a first, reports Bloomberg.
Tesla’s stock price has increased more than 65% since the election of Donald Trump in early November, according to Bloomberg.
Separately, SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy up to $1.25 billion in company stock, pushing the space company’s value to around $350 billion.
This transaction increased Elon Musk’s personal fortune by approximately $50 billion, bringing it to $440 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Largest political donor in American history
Now close to Donald Trump, Elon Musk has become the largest political donor in recent American history with more than $270 million paid during the presidential campaign to support the Republican, according to figures from the US Election Commission (FEC) .
This sum is the largest from a single non-candidate donor, according to data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that “tracks money in politics and its effects on policy.”
Musk’s closeness to Trump has raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest, including raising fears that the new administration would eliminate tax credits on electric vehicles competing with Tesla.
The winner of the US presidential election rewarded him by appointing him to head a commission for “governmental efficiency”, a body created to cut federal budgets.
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