How Elon Musk stands to cash in on Trump's presidential victory
Tesla CEO Elon Musk poured at least $130 million into a pro-Trump campaign effort after an assassination attempt on the former president in July.
As Donald Trump celebrated his presidential victory early Wednesday morning, Elon Musk was right there with him.
"A star is born. Elon," Trump said onstage at his Mar-a-Lago resort, thanking the world's richest person for spending two weeks campaigning in Pennsylvania.
Musk, who poured at least $130 million into a pro-Trump campaign effort, turned Trump support into yet another full-time job in recent months, funding a swing-state operation to register voters and using his social media platform X to constantly tout his preferred candidate, frequently with misinformation.
Musk's investment in Trump is already paying off, even though Trump doesn't take office until Jan. 20.
Tesla shares soared 15% on Wednesday, adding roughly $15 billion in paper value to Musk's net worth. The electric vehicle maker faces headwinds in the global market from China-based competitors, declining European sales and consumers' growing distaste for his political views.
But with Musk cozying up to Trump, and the president-elect promising to slash the types of regulations that Musk abhors, Wall Street is betting Tesla, on balance, will be a beneficiary.
For Musk, the potential gains go well beyond Tesla.
During his victory speech, Trump also praised Musk's SpaceX and thanked Musk for delivering Starlink Wi-Fi terminals to Hurricane-stricken parts of the U.S. That all leaves Musk with plenty of reasons to be optimistic that a second Trump administration will pay healthy dividends to him and his businesses.
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