Elon Musk fortune jumps $15 billion on Tesla’s S&P inclusion

It’s been an eventful few days for Elon Musk.

The billionaire tested positive for Covid-19, his rocket company launched four astronauts into space and on Monday his electric carmaker Tesla Inc. was named for inclusion in the S&P 500.

The last bit of news added the equivalent of rocket fuel to his fortune. Musk, 49, is poised to become the world’s third-richest person, leapfrogging Mark Zuckerberg, after his net worth swelled by more than $15 billion in extended trading.

Tesla, whose stock closed at $408.09, surged about 14% at 6:20 p.m. in New York, lifting Musk’s net worth to $117.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth has jumped $90 billion this year, the biggest gain on the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

Tesla will enter the S&P 500 on Dec. 21 following months of speculation, and one temporary setback, after the stock failed to make the cut during the index’s quarterly rebalancing in early September. Tesla would be the biggest new entrant in the group’s history.

On Saturday, Musk tweeted that he “most likely" had a moderate case of Covid-19 and has had symptoms of “a minor cold." Sunday he tweeted he had no symptoms. That same day four astronauts were launched to the International Space Station in a vehicle built by Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp.