WASHINGTON: Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk’s net worth has surpassed $400 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, setting a new milestone Wednesday for the world’s richest person. The jump in wealth, the business news outlet reported, came after SpaceX and its investors agreed to purchase as much as $1.25 billion of insider shares in a transaction that valued the rocket and satellite company at about $350 billion.

The transaction increased Musk’s personal wealth by about $50 billion to $440 billion, Bloomberg said. Musk’s wealth, largely based on the share price of Tesla and the valuation of SpaceX, already took a huge leap after Donald Trump won last month’s US presidential election. Tesla’s share price is up by about 65 percent since the vote in November.

“What’s really crazy about this is that almost no investors wanted to sell shares even at a $350B valuation!” Musk wrote in a reply to a post on X referring to the Bloomberg report. He added that SpaceX has reduced the number of shares it bought back from employees in order to bring in some new investors.

Musk has been a prominent political donor and advocate for Trump, pumping a staggering $270 million into the Republican’s campaign. He has been an ever-present sidekick for Trump since his election victory, inviting him to watch a rocket launch in Texas by his SpaceX company. Musk’s businesses all have varying degrees of interactions with US and foreign governments, and his proximity to Trump has raised concerns that Musk will be able to give advantage to his own interests.

Musk is also expected to secure a reduction in regulations for Tesla as well as elimination of tax credits on electric vehicles that will punish the car-maker’s rivals. Trump has selected Musk to co-head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is set to deliver billions of dollars of cuts in federal spending and slash government red tape.

Besides Tesla, 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. Musk also owns social media site X and tunnel builder The Boring Company. Musk is followed on the billionaires list by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – with a net worth of $243.7 billion, while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is in the third spot with a net worth of $223.4 billion. — Agencies