The world’s richest person added to his wealth Monday thanks to a stake in a company he was recently critical of. Here are the details.
What Happened: It was revealed Monday that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk took a 9.2% stake in shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE: NYSE:TWTR). News of the purchase led to shares of the social media platform rallying Monday.
Musk was also announced as a new member of Twitter's Board of Directors on Tuesday.
The increased valuation of Twitter shares helped add to Musk’s personal wealth, as tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
As of market close Monday, Musk is worth $288 billion, placing him significantly ahead of second-place Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:AMZN).
Musk added $15.3 billion to his wealth on Monday thanks to a rise in the price of both Tesla and Twitter.
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Why It’s Important: The gain on Monday brought the total year-to-date gain for Musk to $18.1 billion.
This makes Musk the second top gainer in dollars for 2022, ahead of Gautam Adani, who is now the 10th wealthiest person with a gain of $28.2 billion year-to-date.
Musk’s passed Bezos as the wealthiest person in early 2021. At one point, Musk was worth more than Bezos and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg combined. The wealth of Musk soared past $300 billion as Tesla hit all-time highs in late 2021.
At one point in 2021, Musk was worth more than the value of every MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL team combined.
Musk has primarily seen his wealth increase coinciding with the rise of Tesla shares. An increased valuation given to the privately held SpaceX, which counts Musk as the CEO and large shareholder, helped boost Musk’s wealth in 2021.
Now with the Twitter stake, the rise and fall of Musk’s valuation can be attributed to Twitter and Tesla shares and any funding rounds for SpaceX.
TWTR Price Action: Twitter shares surged 27% to close Monday at $49.97. Shares are up 2.02% to $50.98 on Tuesday at market close.
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