Tesla shares ballooned Wednesday morning as investors shunned brutal first-quarter results for optimism about the electric vehicle giant’s return to growth, making the company’s colorful CEO Elon Musk a much richer man.
Tesla stock’s 11% rally to more than $160 per share would be its biggest single-day gain since Jan. 2022, coming after the company’s Tuesday afternoon earnings report.
Musk, who is Tesla’s largest individual shareholder with a 13% stake, grew more than $10 billion wealthier Wednesday morning thanks to the stock market gain, by far the biggest gain of any billionaire, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker.
Musk’s total fortune swelled to $188 billion, making him the third-richest man in the world, trailing only French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault ($218 billion) and Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos ($198 billion).
The results featured a chilling 47% annual drop in profits to their weakest level in three years, but crucially included encouraging nuggets about the company’s electric vehicle and ride-hailing taxi initiatives, as Tesla said it’s on track to soon begin making cheaper EVs and to tangibly move forward with its robotaxi network.
Even after Wednesday’s rally, 2024 has been a downright bloodbath for Tesla shareholders, including Musk. Tesla stock’s 35% drop year-to-date places it among the five worst performers listed on the S&P 500. Musk is about $60 billion poorer Wednesday than he was at the start of the year, according to Forbes’ calculations. That drop, which knocked Musk from his position as the world’s wealthiest man, came as Tesla’s share price cratered and after a Delaware judge axed his more than $40 billion pay package from Tesla, though that bonus will go back to a Tesla shareholder vote in June.
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla’s going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company,” Musk said on Tuesday’s earnings call, reflecting the high-stakes—and maybe not high-probability—bet Tesla is placing on autonomous driving and its autonomous taxi network. “If you value Tesla just like an auto company…fundamentally, it’s just the wrong framework,” Musk added, reflecting the stock’s rally seemingly at odds with Tesla’s actual first-quarter results.
$511 billion. That was Tesla’s market capitalization Wednesday morning after a $51 billion jump. That remains about 60% below its peak valuation of over $1.2 trillion set in late 2021.
