2024 will be remembered as a decisive year in the trajectory of Elon Muskthe most influential and controversial businessman of his generation. The creator of Tesla, SpaceX y Starlink, among other successful companies, consolidated its position as a key player in technological innovation, while facing business and personal challenges that kept its name in headlines around the world.
The life of the billionaire tycoon is very difficult to summarize, but there are certain points that cannot be overlooked and deserve to be analyzed carefully. The North American portal Business Insider He identified some of these points and captured them in an article dedicated to the year of the businessman.
One of Musk’s big achievements in 2024 had to do with the stock market. Tesla shares skyrocketed this year: from $790 billion in market capitalization with which it closed in 2023, it is set to close this year with a value close to $1.39 trillion, an increase of almost $600 billion.
“The automaker has benefited from market buzz around artificial intelligence – which it is taking advantage of to develop self-driving cars and humanoid robots – as well as the strength of the US economy and the US’s interest rate cut. of the Federal Reserve,” they indicated from the specialized site.
SpaceX also had spectacular growth. The company’s valuation practically doubled during 2024, going from $180 billion in 2023 to about $350 billion at the end of 2024.
All of this came after Musk’s net worth plummeted alarmingly during the spring. A drop in Tesla shares had taken its wealth to a low of $170 billion, but it then rebounded by more than $300 billion to reach a record $486 billion on December 17.
Also the artificial intelligence company, xAI, had a notable growth in its valuation. The company, founded in July 2023, reached a value of USD 24 billion last May, following its series B financing round. By November, the figure had already increased to USD 50 billion.
Not far behind is Neuralink, Musk’s neurotechnology company, which last winter was valued at $8 billion, compared to $2 billion three years ago.
The big exception in the stock world was that of X. Although there is no clarity regarding the current value of the company and the number of users of the social network, the figures suggest that the value of 2022, so it was then a public company and is now private, so its information reporting obligations are lower.
Elon Musk became one of the largest donors to the campaign Donald Trump for reelection in 2024, donating more than $100 million to a super PAC. Their support was not only financial; Musk was also active in campaign events and used his X platform (formerly Twitter) to promote Trump.
Following Trump’s victory, Musk was named to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)with the aim of reducing regulations and making government spending more efficient. This gave Musk unprecedented access and influence in US politics.
However, the businessman, who in the past voted for Democratic candidates and considered himself politically centrist, has already had his first clash with the most radical and ultra-conservative base of MAGA (for Make America Great Again, the motto of Trumpism).
It was because of the visas H1-Bfor highly qualified immigrants, many of them from countries like India and in high demand by Silicon Valley and high-tech companies, such as those of Musk himself, who, in addition to being co-founder and main shareholder of Tesla, is the main shareholder of Neuralink, Starlink, The Boring Company, SpaceX and, more recently, xAI.
The controversy that included Musk began with Trump’s appointment of Sriram Krishnan as advisor to the White House in terms of Artificial Intelligence. Krishnan posted on
That comment generated a very harsh and adverse reaction from the most conservative base of Trumpism, opposed to immigration of all kinds. Activist Laura Loomer, of the radical right, considered Krishnan’s position “alarming, and contrary to Trump’s “America First” motto.
The debate escalated quickly and Musk emerged as a defender of skilled immigration. An immigrant himself (he was born and raised in South Africa) he stressed online that the US faces “a serious shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers” and summarized his position in favor of the H1-B visa with the following statement. “It comes down to this: do you want the US to win or lose? “If you force the best talent in the world to work for the other side, the United States will lose.”
