The big kept getting bigger in the uppermost echelons of the corporate world in the last financial year, except for the world’s richest man.
South Africa-born Elon Musk was facing the risk of having to return to the country of his birth as the value of his electric vehicle maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) dropped in the 2025 financial year, the latest data shows.
Musk, who United States President Donald Trump has threatened to deport as the feud between the former political allies re-escalates, watched as Tesla’s market capitalisation fell by 8.3% to US$1.02 trillion (A$1.54 trillion), according to Reuters.
He remains richer than anybody else with a fortune estimated at US$381 billion, based on his stakes in Tesla, SpaceX and xAI.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) reclaimed its position as the world’s largest company based on market capitalisation as its shares rose 17% on surging demand for its computer chips which are used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
NVIDIA was valued by the market at US$3.86 trillion at the end of June, outranking Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) in second place at $3.69 trillion, and leaving Telstra trailing in 10th place.
But it still falls short of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) worth of about $3.92 trillion in December 2024.
“We believe both Nvidia and Microsoft will hit the $4 trillion market cap club this summer and then over the next 18 months the focus will be on the $5 trillion club ... as this tech bull market is still early being led by the AI Revolution," Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives was quoted as saying in this Reuters story.
