As Tesla's Market Cap Crosses $800 Billion, Musk's Wealth Zooms Past $200 Billion

On Friday, shares of Tesla Inc jumped to close 7.84% higher on Nasdaq, taking the electric-car maker's market capitalization to more than $800 billion for the first time ever.

At closing, Tesla's valuation stood at $834.17 billion, fortifying its position as Wall Street's fifth most valuable company, above Facebook Inc and just behind Google-parent Alphabet Inc.

With this surge, founder Elon Musk's net worth rose by $14.5 billion in a day to $209 billion at the end of Friday, as per Bloomberg Billionaire's Index. This week, Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world.

Networth of Amazon Inc's chief stood at $186 billion on Friday, while that of Microsoft's Bill Gates was at $134 billion.

Shares of Tesla Inc gained this week after Evercore ISI upgraded the stock's rating to "in line" from "underperform" and raised the price target to $650 from $225.

It has surged over 700% in a year's time.

In December, the electric-car maker joined the S&P 500 index, the benchmark for large US stocks and one of the most important stock-market gauges in the world. Its addition also added to the buzz around the stock.

On the other hand, Michael Burry, the investor whose billion-dollar bet against the US housing market was immortalized in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short," predicted that Tesla stock would suffer a similar downfall.

"Well, my last Big Short got bigger and bigger and BIGGER too," Burry tweeted on Thursday.