US Election 2024: Elon Musk’s Pockets Deepen As Donald Trump Grabs Presidential Victory
- Donald Trump's US presidential election triumph did massively for tech billionaire Elon Musk
- The South African-born SpaceX owner added about $15 billion to his staggering net worth
- Trump secured victory after clearing several key battlegrounds before the final tallying of results
- A political analyst spoke to Briefly News about what it would mean for a Musk investment in SA
Source: Twitter
WASHINGTON DC — The 2024 US election has brought interesting results, notably for SA-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, after his endorsed candidate, Donald Trump, rose to the highest top on Wednesday, 6 November 2024.
A Trump surrogate, Musk, whom the new president-elect acknowledged as a "new star" during his victory speech at his Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach resort in Florida, harbours his own political ambitions.
Musk gets richer after US election results
However, while speculation surrounds the Space X owner's rumoured potential role in Trump's administration, his fortune has risen massively.
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One of Musk's six companies, alongside X Corp. (which owns X, formerly Twitter), xAI, Neuralink and The Boring Company, Tesla soared in pre-market trading after Trump's astonishing election triumph.
Tesla shares were up 13% at $283.97 (about R5,000) in after-hours deals, several hours before Wall Street opened for trading.
According to CNN, Musk, who donated nearly $119 million to support Trump's campaign, added an estimated $15 billion to his wealth, pushing his overall net worth above $280 billion at the time of publication.
Political analyst Sithembile Mbete, a senior University of Pretoria lecturer, spoke to Briefly News about the prospects of the world's richest man investing in SA after President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Musk in New York on 23 September.
Ramaphosa led an SA delegation to the 79th Session of the United Nations General Debate and High-Level Week from 21 to 24 September.
Notably, Ramaphosa engaged business leaders to attract foreign direct investment into the country, including the SpaceX-owned Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services LLC.
He addressed the SA-US Interactive Business Forum at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to cap off his visit. He gave the keynote address at a Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) roundtable discussion.
"It is important to have a company [owned] by a billionaire, the world's richest man, being interested in investing in South Africa," said Mbete.
"A lot is around Starlink and the kind of access it wants on the African continent. But also the economic growth and development opportunities that having Starlink would pose in that regard.
"So, I think there's a mutual interest, though Elon Musk has been vocal about being opposed to investing because of BBB-EE legislation and regulations around partnering with formerly disadvantaged people."
Mbete said it would be interesting to see what comes out of Ramaphosa's engagements with industry leaders and if Musk uses his role in the Trump administration to influence the US's investment relationship with SA.
Ramaphosa toasts Trump on win
In related news, Briefly News reported that Ramaphosa was among the global leaders who congratulated Trump on his election win.
Ramaphosa raised a glass to his counterpart, sharing that he looked forward to strengthened ties as SA assumes the presidency of the G20 in 2025.
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Source: Briefly News
