New Delhi: The latest jump in Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk’s net worth has made him richer than a country of over 220 million people. At $288.6 billion, Musk’s net worth is higher that Pakistan’s GDP for 2020-21, which stood at $278.3 billion (at current market prices) in 2020-21.
The surge in Musk’s net worth has been powered by an order of 1 lakh Tesla vehicles from US-based car rental company Hertz, which sent the electric vehicle giant’s shares surging by 13 per cent Monday.
His wealth increased by $36 billion with the deal, the biggest one-day gain in the history of Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, a daily ranking of the world’s richest launched in 2012.
Wild $T1mes!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2021
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is the world’s second richest person at a distant $192.6 billion.
However, the majority of Musk’s net worth is tied up in shares and options of Tesla, and some analysts believe the company’s stock is overvalued.
He also owns Space X, which is a private company valued at $100 billion.
The deal also gave Tesla a ticket to the premium trillion-dollar-company club that currently only hosts Apple, Amazon, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet (which owns Google).
The connection between Musk’s new net worth and Pakistan’s GDP was drawn on Twitter by US-based journalist Edward Luce.
Elon Musk's net worth now greater than Pakistan's gross domestic product – a country with 220 million people.
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) October 27, 2021
In a ‘different’ league
In an article published Wednesday, The New York Times said Tesla is very “different” from other trillion-dollar companies.
Among other factors, it noted that Tesla has a junk bond rating, which means a high yield but high risk.
“Tesla’s nearly $10 billion in long-term debt was recently raised to BB+, one level below investment grade,” it wrote.
The report also said “Tesla’s sales and earnings are far lower than others”. Its sales forecast for next year is about $6 billion, which is one fifth of Amazon’s forecast, according to the NYT report, also weighing in on the debate over Tesla’s valuation.
Then there is the 2018 fraud lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that Musk and Tesla settled for $40 million, although without admitting guilt. The commission had alleged that Musk misled investors by tweeting about a potential buyout of his company.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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