Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk's net worth surpassed US$400 billion (about RM1.77 trillion) on Thursday, boosted by a nearly 71% surge in the automaker's shares this year and the soaring valuation of his rocket company SpaceX, Reuters reported late Thursday based on Forbes' real-time billionaires list.

Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder with about a 13% stake in the company. The EV maker's shares rose to a record high of US$424.90 on Wednesday, extending a rally that has started since the Nov 5 US presidential election where Donald Trump was reelected for the second term.

Web-sourced information showed that as of December 2024, Tesla has a market capitalisation of US$1.312 trillion, the eighth largest in the world. By comparison, the world's top three companies by market cap are Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp with market cap above US$3.0 trillion.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the most recent catalyst of Musk's personal wealth surge was an insider share sale of his privately held SpaceX, which boosted Musk's net worth by roughly US$50 billion. According to Musk's reply to a post on X platform, almost none of the investors wanted to sell their shares even at a US$350 billion valuation, referring to the valuation of the private aerospace company SpaceX.

Besides Tesla and Space X, Musk also heads brain technology startup Neuralink. Both SpaceX and Neuralink rely heavily on government regulation and policy and could benefit from a business-friendly administration.

His tie with pro-business President-elect Donald Trump has pushed his ventures to the forefront.

In addition to being the chief of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, Musk is the owner of X social media platform and CEO of other ventures, including xAI.