AGE: 53 | SOURCE OF WEALTH: TESLA, SPACEX | SELF-MADE SCORE: 8/10 | RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TEXAS | CITIZENSHIP: UNITED STATES | MARITAL STATUS: DIVORCED | CHILDREN: 11 | EDUCATION: BACHELOR OF ARTS/SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
The richest person on Earth is now arguably the most powerful, too. A former Democrat–and a South African who came to the U.S. via Canada as a college student–Musk became a big backer of Donald Trump in the runup to the November 5 election, speaking at rallies and donating $119 million to return him to the White House. It may have been the best money he ever spent. In his presidential victory speech, Trump declared Musk a genius, then welcomed him into his inner circle at Mar-a-Lago and even included him in a Trump family photo. A week after the election, Trump named Musk a co-chair of a new advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”), tasked with reducing waste and excess regulations in the federal government.
There are potentially significant conflicts of interest at play, given Musk’s companies’ ties to the federal government. Musk-led SpaceX has inked nearly $20 billion in contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense since 2008. Musk-led Tesla has faced investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the safety of its autopilot and “full self-driving” features, following reports of multiple crashes, including at least 30 that resulted in fatalities since 2018. And Musk-controlled X (formerly called Twitter) is subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission; Trump recently nominated as FCC chairman a current FCC director who has been outspoken about his support for Musk’s companies. Meanwhile, investors appear to applaud these ties: shares of Tesla surged in the weeks after the election, helping to push Musk’s fortune up $70 billion to a record high of $334 billion on Friday, November 22. On November 8, Musk crossed the $300 billion mark for the first time since April 2022. He had previously become the first person ever worth at least $300 billion in November 2021.
🚙 Tesla: $195 B
Musk owns about 12% of Tesla excluding options, but has pledged more than half his........