Elon Musk’s fortune soars further since pre-purchase of Twitter. See details

Elon Musk’s net worth is soaring after falling to its lowest level in almost a year.

Over the past five days, the world’s third-richest person has gained $37.3 billion in net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s his biggest weekly gain since March 2022, just before he agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion in one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history. Since then, his fortune has fallen as often as it has risen after a breathtaking rise in 2020 and 2021.

Shares of Tesla Inc. rose Monday to their biggest gain in more than three years following reports that it received in-principle approval from Chinese authorities to deploy its driver assistance system in the world’s biggest auto market. This followed last week’s news that the electric vehicle maker plans to launch a cheaper car later this year, which eased concerns about disappointing profits.

Musk added $18.5 billion to his fortune on Monday alone, the 13th biggest market-driven daily gain for any billionaire in Bloomberg’s wealth index and Musk’s seventh biggest. With a net worth of $201.5 billion, he is close to overtaking second place Jeff Bezos, after overtaking Mark Zuckerberg last week.

Musk, 52, derives his wealth primarily from his stake in Tesla, as well as his holdings in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Before the recent rally, Tesla spent much of the year as the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 index amid price cuts and a surprising drop in vehicle deliveries. The value of X, however, has fallen about 73% since Musk bought it two years ago, according to a March valuation from the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, which invested alongside him.

A bright spot for Musk’s wealth was SpaceX, which gained more than 40% in value between mid-2022 and the end of 2023.

The billionaire also faces pressure internally. Tesla asked shareholders to vote again on Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, which was struck down by a Delware court earlier this year. If rejected, Musk risks losing stock options that represent nearly a quarter of his net worth, according to the Bloomberg Wealth Index.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday also rejected an appeal by Musk in his “Twitter sitter” case, leaving intact his agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to have an in-house lawyer pre-approve his social media posts about Tesla.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)