Donald Trump Win Deepens Elon Musk’s Pockets, Political Analyst Explains What It Means for SA
- Donald Trump secured victory in the US elections after clearing several key battlegrounds before the final tallying of results
- Trump's US presidential election triumph did wonders for tech billionaire Elon Musk, as it soared his staggering net worth
- Political analyst Sithembile Mbete spoke to Briefly News about what Trump's win would mean for a Musk investment in SA
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WASHINGTON DC — The 2024 US election has brought interesting results, notably for SA-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, after his endorsed candidate, Donald Trump, won on Wednesday, 6 November 2024.
Musk gets richer after US election results
While speculation surrounds the Space X owner's rumoured potential role in Trump's administration, his fortune has risen massively.
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.
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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 donated nearly $119 million to support Trump's campaign, adding an estimated $15 billion to his wealth, pushing his overall net worth above $280 billion at publication.
What would Trump's US election win mean for a Musk investment in SA?
President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Elon Musk in New York on 23 September. The president then led an SA delegation to the 79th Session of the United Nations General Debate and High-Level Week from 21 to 24 September.
Despite his global business footprint, Musk has yet to tap into the South African market.
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 South Africa.
Mbete said it's important that a company owned by the world's richest man is interested in investing in South Africa.
The political analyst added that there is a lot of interest in Starlink and the kind of access it wants on the African continent.
He added that there's also great interest in the economic growth and development opportunities Starlink would create in South Africa.
"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 intriguing 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
