He has wiggled his way into power thanks to his wealth. But once he is making decisions that affect people’s daily lives, Musk may find the shine wears off

Congratulations to Elon Musk, a genius of truly galactic proportions, who recently made what might have been the world’s savviest investment. The tech billionaire spent more than $277m backing Donald Trump, along with a number of other Republican candidates in the election – and that quarter-billion-dollar investment has paid off nicely. Musk’s net worth has increased by 77% since Trump’s victory, and has now surpassed $400bn (£315bn), according to a recent estimate from Bloomberg, making him the first person ever to officially reach such a milestone. Still, in just a couple of years, Musk’s current fortune might look like chump change: the man is reportedly on track to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027.

How did he get (even more) rich so quick? Well, if you want to be diplomatic about it, as CNN was, you can say something like “an alliance with president-elect Donald Trump has pushed his ventures to the forefront”. But the more direct answer is that everyone knows the incoming Trump administration’s guiding principle is quid pro quo. Since it seems highly likely that taxpayer money will be funnelled towards Musk’s various companies, the value of those companies has been blowing up. Kind of like his SpaceX rockets – one of which exploded so ferociously earlier this year that it tore a hole in the ionosphere. Is that a bad thing? Iono.