After a surge in Tesla's stock price on Monday increased the owner of Twitter's net worth by about $7 billion to $187 billion, Elon Musk is once again the richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Following a sharp decline in wealth in late 2022 when he became the first person to ever amass and then lose $200 billion, Musk has reclaimed the top rank from French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault. His fortune reached a high of roughly $340 billion in November 2021 and a low of about $128 billion at the beginning of 2023.
The majority of Musk's personal fortune comes from Tesla stock. Due to investor worries about falling demand, Musk's distracting purchase of Twitter, and the turbulent beginning to his leadership of the social media network, the electric car manufacturer lost close to two-thirds of its value in 2022. Tesla's stock price has increased by around 90% since the beginning of 2023, despite Musk's problems at Twitter, where he reportedly fired 200 more workers over the weekend after previously reducing the headcount from 7,500 to about 2,000 since October.
Tesla Investors Day
Musk is anticipated to talk about upcoming products, including the long-promised Cybertruck and Semi Truck, as well as plans to extend Tesla's production infrastructure globally at today's annual Investor Day at its factory in Austin, Texas.
Mexico Plan
One such scheme was hinted at when Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico, said that Elon Musk had told him over the phone that Tesla will construct a new factory in the city of Monterrey. This will bring significant investment and several jobs to the region. Analysts predict that Tesla may open factories in Canada and Indonesia in addition to its existing facilities in China and Germany.
Tesla will establish a sizable plant in northern Mexico, according to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, marking an investment that might be worth up to $10 billion for the area. López Obrador confirmed that the facility would be situated in Monterrey, the capital of the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, after speaking by phone with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Mexican President says Tesla is readying to built its next plant in Mexico
López Obrador claimed that Musk has shown great receptivity to issues like the overuse of water in the arid region. Once a drought emergency was proclaimed in July, the Mexican state was compelled to ration water. Lopez Obrador referred to the situation as a national security concern.
However, Lopez Obrador claimed that the new facility would use recycled water in an effort to allay worries about the state's scarce water supplies due to its arid climate. For US-based businesses wishing to set up manufacturing facilities, Mexico has positioned itself as an alternative to Asia, touting proximity as a benefit. The choice, which Tesla has not yet announced, would significantly advance such initiatives. With operations for American, European, and Asian automakers, Mexico already has one of the largest automotive manufacturing industries in Latin America, second only to Brazil.
More foreign investment entered the nation last year than at any other time in the previous few years combined. This month, the German automaker BMW announced that it would invest around $870 million in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi to produce electric vehicles.
Moreover, López Obrador bragged that US corporations intended to invest $40 billion through 2024 during a meeting with US and Mexican business executives in July 2022. Given that Lopez Obrador wants to increase state control over numerous economic sectors, several investors have expressed scepticism towards him.
The US and Canada authorities argued that Lopez Obrador's energy strategy offers Mexican energy suppliers an unfair edge over private enterprises, and the two countries engaged in a heated debate over the issue. The argument has not yet been settled.
The Mexico president stated at a press conference that more information regarding the new factory would probably be revealed during Tesla's Investor Day.
López Obrador has changed his mind after previously ruling out the possibility of building a Tesla facility in Nuevo León due to water-related concerns.
Also, some experts have noted that as Mexico's 2024 presidential election draws closer, López Obrador's Morena party may benefit economically from the Tesla facility. Although Lopez Obrador can only serve one term as president, his party continues to be the front-runner in early polls.
