Tesla surpasses $1 trillion in valuation in wake of Trump’s victory

Tesla returned to the $1 trillion club on Friday after its stock surged in the days following Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

Shares in the electric car maker are up about 23% since Wednesday – a sharp turnaround from a year in which the share price had otherwise moved sideways.

The new valuation also boosts Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth to about $300 billion, according to Forbes — increasing his already sizeable margin as the world’s richest person by more than $30 billion.

Musk campaigned aggressively for Trump, who has signaled his intention to appoint the Tesla chief to a role tasked with increasing government “efficiency” that would cut programs deemed wasteful.

Through his rocket company SpaceX, Musk has been the recipient of billions in government contracts over the past decade. While Tesla has fewer direct contracts, it has been embroiled in several federal investigations and regulatory actions that could be dialed back once Trump takes office.

Tesla’s 13-figure valuation places it among the ranks of Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta.

Tesla previously hit $1 trillion in 2021.

Demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles has shown some signs of weakness in recent quarters, but Musk has said he doesn’t bet the automaker’s future on environmentally conscious drivers, but rather on a future fleet of autonomous vehicles. On that front, the company now faces competition from Alphabet-owned Waymo, which has already steadily rolled out “robotaxis” services in several markets.