Elon Musk is $26 billion richer after Tesla's best day on the stock market since 2013

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, already the world's richest person, added another $26 billion in paper wealth on Thursday after his company's stock had its biggest rally since 2013.

Musk is now worth about $269 billion, according to Forbes, putting him more than $50 billion ahead of good friend and former Tesla board member Larry Ellison, who remains the largest shareholder in Oracle.

Musk controls close to 13% of Tesla's outstanding shares, accounting for the bulk of his net worth, though he also owns a big chunk of SpaceX, which is valued on the private markets at over $200 billion. Additionally, he's the controlling owner of X, formerly Twitter, and artificial intelligence startup xAI.

Musk's wealth could be even higher depending on the outcome of a shareholder lawsuit surrounding his 2018 pay package that's winding its way through court.

The pop on Thursday followed Tesla's better-than-expected earnings report late Wednesday and Musk's comments on the call suggesting that "vehicle growth" will be 20% to 30% next year. Tesla shares soared 22% at the close, their second-biggest gain since the company's IPO in 2010.

Prior to the earnings announcement, Tesla shares had been slumping and were headed for their worst month since January. But the stock erased its loss for the year and is now up 5% in 2024, compared to the Nasdaq's 23% gain.

Tesla reported earnings per share of 72 cents, topping the average analyst estimate of 58 cents. Profit was boosted by $739 million in revenue for environmental regulatory credits and $326 million in revenue from FSD, the company's Full Self-Driving Supervised system.

Musk spent much of the earnings call touting what he promises will be Tesla's autonomous future, including a ride-hailing service that he