Tesla’s Boss On His Way To Become The Richest Dude On Earth (TSLA)

There’s no doubt about it, if a survey was conducted today, Elon Musk would surely be included as one of the world’s most influential personalities, not to mention he’s one of the richest too. And it’s mainly because of Tesla and SpaceX.

Right now, Tesla’s market cap is already at around $50 billion. And if the company is able to push through with a successful launching of the much awaited Model 3, they could be looking at sales figures of around half a million cars annually by 2019, and up to 2 to 5 million cars annually by 2025. If that happens, Tesla’s value will likely balloon to over $500 billion.

And then there’s SpaceX. Prior to the recent successful flight of a recycled Falcon 9 rocket that launched the SES-10 satellite into orbit and proved that it is possible to relaunch a rocket into orbital space more than once, the value of SpaceX has been estimated at over $12 billion. Now, with its intention to repeat its feat with Falcon 9, reuse more rockets, and launch hundreds of satellites to support a broadband service that spans the entire globe, assuming all these plans push through, the company’s value can easily jump to a few hundred billions.

Musk first brought up the idea of a global broadband service in 2015. As an overview, he mentioned it involves around 4,000 satellites and is part of his grand and ambitious plan to colonize Mars and make it an alternative home for humankind.

In 2016, GeekWire reported that SpaceX had filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (or the FCC) for a 4,425-satellite communications network.

Now, a technical document shared by GeekWire has provided further details about the global ISP plan. Apparently, SpaceX will start the ball rolling with 800 satellites that will operate in the Ka and Ku bands, until it eventually reaches the 4,425 total it applied for.

Each satellite would weigh around 386 Kg and measure 4m x 1.8m x 1.2m. They will have solar arrays and would orbit the Earth at an altitude of 1,150 Km, which will enable them to cover a radius of 1,060 Km. Altogether, the satellites are meant to provide communication and broadband services for all kinds of users around the world, from residential, to commercial, government, institutional and professional.

According to Musk, the estimated cost of the project is $10 billion. On top of providing a global broadband service, the project is meant to be the cash cow that will ultimately make it possible to build a city on Mars. And Musk will reap all the benefits, at least the financial side of it.

There’s really nothing wrong with Musk reaching the top of the world’s richest list. Some may consider him delusional, while others may think of him as a genius. But just like what Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) said — it’s what a person does that defines him/her. And if Musk manages to succeed on all of his well-intentioned endeavors, whether it is making our world a better place or putting a million people on Mars, then heck, maybe he deserves to be the richest guy on the planet.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Action

TSLA continues to charge higher. It broke the $300 level for the first time ever in Nasdaq’s Tuesday trading, touching a new all-time high of $304.88. The name, which overtook by about $4 billion Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) as the second-largest U.S. auto maker by market value, has been charging higher since the beginning of the year, gaining nearly 40 percent. Year-to-date the equity has printed a return of about 11 percent.

Tesla managed to print record highs following its Q117 results. The company said it pushed out a record of more than 25,000 electric vehicles in the period, upping the numbers by nearly 70 percent from the same period last year.

Production in Q1 totaled 25,418 vehicles, also a record, Tesla said.

On trading-measure, Tesla stock has a beta of 1.17 and a short float of 31 million. In the past 52 weeks, shares of the electric-car maker have traded between a low of $178.19 and a high of $304.88, with their 50-day MA and 200-day MA located at $262.91 and $224.90 levels, respectively.

Tesla has a Street price target of $240 with a high target of $375.

• Become A Funded Futures Trader