Elon Musk's net worth surges by over $16 billion after Trump win
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election sent shares of Tesla surging as much as 15% Wednesday, propelled by CEO Elon Musk's prominent role in the Republican's White House campaign and expectations that the company will benefit from proposed tax cuts and a deregulatory blitz.
Trump name-checked Musk, the world's richest man, during his victory speech Wednesday morning, calling him a "super genius." Campaign finance records show that Musk—who's expected to receive a position in the president-elect's administration, despite massive conflicts of interest—pumped more than $100 million into the 2024 race in support of Trump's bid for a second term.
According to Forbes' real-time tracker, Musk's net worth—the bulk of which is tied up in Tesla stock—rose by over $16 billion on Wednesday.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday morning that while he believes a Trump presidency "would be an overall negative" for the electric vehicle industry given the Republican's pledge to assail the Inflation Reduction Act—a law that includes EV tax credits—"for Tesla we see this as a huge positive," estimating Trump's victory could help push Tesla's market share above $1 trillion.
Tesla was far from the only company whose stock price surged in the wake of Trump's win.
S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each soared to new all-time highs Wednesday as the former president appeared on track to defeat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in every swing state, securing a decisive Electoral College victory.
Wall Street behemoths Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase saw their shares jump by nearly 12% and 9% respectively, while the stock prices of oil companies such as Exxon Mobil also climbed, anticipating an aggressively pro-fossil fuel Trump administration.
Harold Hamm, billionaire founder of the oil and gas company Continental Resources, hailed Trump's victory over Harris as a "monumental win" for the fossil fuel sector—the primary driver of the global climate emergency.
The Financial Timesreported Wednesday morning that JPMorgan analysts expect shares of the biggest U.S. corporations "to rally over the coming weeks" in the aftermath of Trump's win.
"Trump's proposal to cut the corporate rate from 21% to 15% would prove particularly supportive for wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T, payment networks Visa and Mastercard, and media groups Fox and Warner Bros, analysts at America's biggest bank said in a note to clients on Wednesday," the newspaper observed.
An analysis released earlier this year estimated that Trump's proposal to slash the statutory corporate tax rate would deliver an annual tax cut of $48 billion to the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. companies—a sum bigger than the Education Department's K-12 budget.
During the campaign, Trump expressed support for eliminating the Department of Education entirely.