Featured Image Credit: The Washington Post/Contributor / Chip Somodevilla/Staff / Getty
Donald Trump's election victory wasn't just a great personal win for Elon Musk, as his financial fortunes have increased dramatically too.
The technology mogul has remained the richest individual in the world for quite some time now, with his ownership of companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and more proving incredibly fruitful for his pockets.
Even his $44 billion October 2022 purchase of X (formerly Twitter) and its subsequent devaluation hasn't even come close to knocking him off the top spot - although he was worried for his future if Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party had prevailed in the recent election.
Fortunately for the South African though his keen support of Donald Trump and the Republican Party likely helped them secure victory on November 5, and in turn Musk's own wealth has increased by a staggering $26,000,000,000.
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According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the real-time wealth increases of the richest individuals in the world, Elon Musk was one of countless billionaires who increased their net worth following the election result.
These gains are largely down to the surge in stock prices for US-based companies, as many investors are looking to cash in on Trump's low-tax policies.
Overall, the ten richest names on Bloomberg's list - which includes figures like Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's Bill Gates - increased their wealth by around $63bn after Trump's victory, with eight of the ten names based primarily in the technology sector like Musk.
Musk, however, had by far the biggest increase to his fortunes, as his $26.5bn growth was $16.62bn greater than the next highest gain from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. In fact, Musk's total was around 42% of the total gains of the top 10, which was overall the highest daily increase since Bloomberg started the index 14 years ago.
This takes Elon Musk's overall net worth up to $290bn overall, with a year-to-date increase of $61.3bn. That figure puts him $62bn ahead of Bezos who is placed second on the list, and it's hard to picture a situation where Musk won't remain the world's richest individual for the considerable future.
It wasn't all sunshine and roses for every name within the top ten though, as two individuals were unfortunate enough to suffer losses post election.
Meta's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was one of the few in Silicon Valley that lost money, albeit just a 'measly' $80.9 million, but founder of luxury goods company LVMH Bernard Arnault suffered a drop of $2.85bn to his net worth of $173bn. Perhaps he'll have to forgo his avocado toast and Netflix subscription for a while.
