Elon Musk’s net worth has climbed by more than $200 billion in 2024, a massive increase in the sameyear that the world’s richest person spent at least$277 million backing Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.
The bulk of the increase, more than $170 billion, has come since Election Day.
Trump’s election sent stock in electric-vehicle maker Tesla, a company central to Musk’s wealth and where he is CEO, soaring. Shares were trading at prices about 70 percent higher on Friday than on Election Day.
As of Friday, Musk’s fortune was about $442 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That estimate includes a pay package from Tesla worth more than $50 billion that is held up in court after a Delaware judge ruled to strike it down in January and upheld her decision this month. Tesla has pledged to appeal.
Trump has indicated he will be friendly to businesses and investors of all kinds when he returns to office. Musk’s empire is poised to especiallybenefit from the president-elect’s promised cuts to regulation — and potentiallyalso overt favors to the tech billionaire, who has become a loyal political lieutenant.
Trump picked Musk to co-chair a nongovernmental advisory group on cuts to federal spending and regulation known as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, potentially allowing the tech entrepreneur to shape policies that affect his businesses. Musk did not respond to a request for comment….
Democrats in Congress said the combination of Musk’s election spending, expectations that Trump will create policies favorable to the tech mogul and the recent increase in Musk’s net worth could ethically compromise the incoming administration.
“There is an outrageous and urgent conflict of interest for Elon Musk, a billionaire with business interests like Tesla, but also covering a wide range of industries, to be given any responsibility for corporate welfare disguised as government efficiency,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said.
“Dismantling safety rules and oversight concerning self-driving vehicles simply drives up the stock price and undermines safety — with benefits to him and shareholders but not to drivers and others on the road.”
Blumenthal said Musk recently lobbied Republicans on Capitol Hill to clear a regulatory pathway for autonomy, the issue that later sent Tesla’s stock price soaring…..