Elon Musk gains $45.2B as Tesla axes the Cybertruck by mid-2027
The short version
- Tesla will stop making the Cybertruck in mid-2027 to build driverless Cybercabs.
- What it means for your portfolio: Tech stock swings move fast when political rules shift.
Elon Musk gained $45.2 billion on Friday as Tesla and SpaceX shares rebounded, hours after confirming that Tesla will stop making the Cybertruck to free up space for its driverless Cybercab. The gain lifted Musk's fortune back above $800 billion by 1 p.m. In New York, according to Forbes.
Tesla shares rose about 4% and SpaceX shares climbed 6% as technology stocks staged a partial recovery from Thursday's steep selloff. The rebound followed two brutal sessions where Musk lost roughly $35 billion on Wednesday and about $80 billion on Thursday as investors dumped AI-linked stocks after Democrats won control of Congress and pledged tighter rules on data centers.
Friday's recovery erased more than a third of those losses. Meanwhile, the Cybertruck decision gave investors a fresh reason to buy. Musk confirmed on X that production of the angular electric pickup will end around mid-2027 at Tesla's Gigafactory in Texas, with factory space redirected to the Cybercab, Tesla's two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals.
The move effectively ends one of Musk's most high-profile and divisive products after falling far short of its 250,000 annual sales target. Other tech billionaires also saw recoveries on Friday, including Michael Dell, who gained $4.2 billion, Mark Zuckerberg, who added $4.1 billion, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who rose about $4 billion, according to Forbes.
Musk heads into the weekend still far ahead as the world's richest person, though the week's wild swings show how quickly political and market sentiment can move a massive fortune.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, edited
