Yahoo Finance Elon Musk to become world’s first trillionaire, says investment bank
Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire, analysts claimed as his electric car maker Tesla raced to a record quarter.
An analyst at Morgan Stanley said that Mr Musk is on track to become the first person with a 13-figure fortune because of the huge growth potential of SpaceX, his rocket company.
It came as Tesla’s net income, operating profit and gross profit hit all-time highs during the third quarter despite a global microchip shortage.
Revenues surged 57pc to $13.8bn (£9.9bn) for the three month period, and profits climbed by 77pc to $3.7bn.
The company reported earlier this month that it had produced 237,823 cars in the quarter and delivered 241,300.
Chip shortages and port congestion prevented Tesla’s factories from running at full speed, the company said, but bosses claimed that its production teams had confronted the issues “with ingenuity, agility and flexibility that is unparalleled in the automotive industry”.
Tesla has been the main driver behind Mr Musk’s astronomical wealth due to its surging share price, which has jumped by 18pc since the state of the year.
By contrast, at present SpaceX comprises around 17pc of the entrepreneur’s $241.4bn fortune according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
But in a note, Adam Jones of Morgan Stanley said that SpaceX was “challenging any preconceived notion of what was possible and the time frame possible, in terms of rockets, launch vehicles and supporting infrastructure”,
He added that SpaceX is one business that comprises of multiple different companies, from earth observation and space infrastructure to deep-space exploration and other industries - all of which show potential.
The satellite communications business Starlink is the biggest driver behind a $200bn valuation estimate Mr Jones placed on the company.
It comes as SpaceX battles taxpayer backed OneWeb and Amazon to become dominant player in the satellite broadband market by launching satellite constellations that will blanket the earth with high-speed connections.
SpaceX recently complained to the communications regulator Ofcom that OneWeb is seeking to slow down the launch of satellite internet services designed to fix broadband blackspots.
Meanwhile, Tesla is currently in the throes of quitting Silicon Valley and moving its headquarters to Texas after Mr Musk took aim at local lockdown measures.
The electric car company will move from Palo Alto to the Texas capital, Austin, he told a meeting of Tesla shareholders earlier this month.
