Elon Musk just made a major move in the race to the top of the mountain.
Per Bloomberg, Musk is now the third richest man in the world, passing Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Musk is now worth $115.4 billion while Zuckerberg’s net worth is sitting at $110.8 billion.
Musk’s jump comes after Tesla’s 5-1 stock split. This means that one share was split into five shares with no change to the total value of investors’ holdings. It also lowers the company’s share price so that it can reach smaller, individual investors. Not only did this create demand for the Tesla stock, but it also led to a flood of people buying into the company.
Along with the stock split, Tesla’s stock shares have surged by close to 500 percent this year alone for various reasons. The company is now has a market value of $464 billion which makes it more valuable than Walmart Inc., America’s largest company by revenue.
All of this success has allowed Musk’s net worth to increase by $87.8 billion in 2020 despite a global pandemic. He’s also poised to increase his lead on Zuckerberg as he struck a deal with Tesla’s board of directors that could yield him around $50 billion. Once the deal is complete, it will be the largest pay deal to ever be struck between a company’s chief executive officer and its board of directors.
