NEW YORK, July 14 — Tesla’s surging stock value has boosted Elon Musk further up the list of top billionaires as he stands poised for yet another massive payout as soon as this week.

The electric car maker, which has scored outsized gains in recent weeks, suffered a rare down day yesterday, finishing 3.1 per cent lower at US$1,497.06 (RM6,384.96) after rising as high as US$1,794.99 earlier in the session.

Tesla shares have already soared a whopping 258 per cent in 2020, leaving the US business press gawking at the iconoclastic Musk’s swelling wealth.

Musk is currently the 10th richest person in the world with US$68.6 billion in wealth, according to Bloomberg.

Musk also could be just days away from qualifying for a new payout under the company’s executive compensation plan, which ties the Tesla boss’s pay to performance goals and stock price, and could yield Musk another US$2.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The electric car maker is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on July 22. There has been speculation Tesla could be promoted to the S&P 500 following the report. One of the criteria for that is to post profits over four consecutive quarters.

Tesla’s pullback was part of a larger retreat in tech shares yesterday. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which has repeatedly hit records in recent weeks, finished down 2.1 per cent at 10,390.84. — AFP