Here's a quick recap of Elon Musk's net worth history:
On January 1, 2020, Elon's net worth was $28 billion. A year later, January 1, 2021, his net worth was $170 billion. Fast forward 10 months to October 21, Elon's net worth hit $250 billion. One week later his net worth topped $300 billion.
When the markets closed on Friday, October 29, Elon's personal fortune sat at $311 billion.
When the markets closed on Monday, Nov 1st, – technically just one trading day later – his net worth sat at…
$335 billion
That's $24 billion gain in a single day. That's more than Masayoshi Son's entire net worth, added in a single day.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
How and why is this happening?
As Jim Cramer put it:
"Tesla is a phenomenon we have to talk about because I've actually never seen a stock go up endlessly on nothing."
Tesla's share price increased 50% in the last 30 days. It's up 200% in the last 12 months.
Tesla's share price increased 8.5% today purportedly thanks to an announcement that the company is launching a test program that would allow non-Tesla electric cars charge at Tesla Supercharger network stations.
I guess that's a cool feature but is it cool enough to justify the company's market cap increasing from $1.12 trillion to $1.21 trillion? In other words, is that announcement worth a $90 billion increase in market cap?
For some perspective, the paint company Sherwin Williams has been around since 1866. It's really good at selling lots of paint. For the last 155 years it has been making paint and making consistent solid profits that grow steadily every year. Sherwin Williams' stock price has increased fom $7 a share in October 2000 to $310 per share today. Sherwin William's is currently sitting at an all-time market cap high of $81 billion.
Is it rational that Tesla should gain the entire market cap of Sherwin Williams in a day thanks essentially to a press release?
Below are the five largest American companies in the world by market cap. I've also listed each company's earnings and profits.
- #1: Microsoft – Market cap $2.47 trillion, revenue $168 billion, profit $73 billion
- #2: Apple – Market cap $2.46 trillion, revenue $347 billion, profit $103 billion
- #3: Google – Market cap $1.9 trillion, revenue $220 billion, profit $75 billion
- #4: Amazon – Market cap $1.68 trillion, revenue $443 billion, profit $35 billion
- #5: Tesla – Market cap $1.2 trillion, revenue $31 billion, profit $721 million
FYI, Apple earns Tesla's entire annual profits in two and a half days.
Does this seem rational to you?
I have no idea and you should not look to me for stock advice. As I pointed out in a recent article, I previously owned around $10,000 worth of Tesla shares. Below is a chart of Tesla's share price over the last five years. For your enjoyment, I've placed frowny faces on the approximate dates when I bought and then sold the stock for roughly the same price, so no gain:
Had I held on to my stake, today I would own 165 shares thanks to the company's 5-1 split in August 2020. Today those 165 shares would be worth $199,417. AKA a low-mileage Ferrari Testarossa. I'd actually have $20-30k to spare. So I could have had a Ferrari Testarossa and a week at the Four Seasons Bora Bora with first class tickets for two.
Cool Cool.
Some other fun quick stats about Elon Musk's net worth:
– Elon's net worth has increased $165 billion since January 1, 2021.
– Elon is $142 billion richer than Jeff Bezos
– Elon is equally as rich as Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Steve Ballmer together.
– Elon is richer than Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, combined.
– Elon is richer than the market caps of the following companies:
- Disney, Netflix, Salesforce, Exxon, Nike, PayPal, Toyota, Coca-Cola…
Elon is now officially the second-richest human being in modern history. He surpassed Andrew Carnegie's inflation-adjusted $310 billion net worth and is only $5 billion shy of John D. Rockefeller's $340 billion net worth.
