Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Chapter 444 - 372: Tycoon Link (6/10)

On the internet, news like "Scumbag Link" and "Buy albums to support Taylor, help Taylor raise her child" hadn't even cooled down when another piece of news fiercely broke into the top three trending lists on major news platforms.

The cause was on September 12, when Tesla Inc. was listed on NASDAQ, (stock ticker: TSLA), becoming the first independent all-electric vehicle manufacturer to be listed in the United States.

Tesla Inc. issued 13.3 million shares, about 14.3% of its total shares, at a price of $21 per share with a corresponding market value of $2.38 billion. On the opening day, Tesla's stock price rose to $28 and peaked at $35.

Tesla's market value smoothly surpassed $3 billion US dollars.

If it were just $3 billion US dollars, Link, a major shareholder of Tesla, would not have drawn much media attention.

However, over the following week, Tesla's stock steadily climbed from the issue price of $21 US dollars to $38 US dollars, and Tesla's market value also expanded to $4.28 billion US dollars, peaking at $6 billion US dollars.

When Tesla's market value broke $4 billion US dollars, The Wall Street Journal published a piece of great news on its front page, not to congratulate Tesla on surpassing $4 billion but to congratulate Tesla's second-largest individual shareholder, Mr. Link Baker, whose net worth had surpassed $1 billion US dollars, making him a self-made billionaire.

The Wall Street Journal extensively introduced Link's investments in the Tesla project in the article, claiming that Link had spent nearly two hundred million US dollars since the beginning of the year, buying up more than 11% of Tesla's shares.

After the successful listing of Tesla, Link Baker still retained 10.3% of Tesla shares, becoming the second-largest individual shareholder of Tesla, the global spokesperson for Tesla, and the fifth highest voting member on Tesla's board of directors.

Based on the current market value of Tesla, the 10.3% share that Link held was worth over four hundred million US dollars. Along with Link's music venture, currently valued at $520 million US dollars, as well as Dynasty Promotion Company, investments in Twitter, and the more than one hundred million US dollars he earned through boxing matches.

The Wall Street Journal estimated Link's net worth was comfortably over one billion US dollars, estimated between $1 billion to $1.2 billion.

The Wall Street Journal also published comments from Elon Musk, who began by saying that he was neighbors with Link, both living in the Bay Area villas, less than three miles apart.

Musk also mentioned he was a fan of Link's boxing and initially sought Link out for an autograph, not investment. Later, the two got along well, and he asked Link if he wanted to invest in Tesla, which was a great company that, in the future, could carry humans to Mars.

Link said that was cool and immediately agreed to join.

Musk mentioned he was very excited at the time, feeling like he had found a like-minded person.

Finally, when the reporter asked Musk how he would describe Link?

Musk said that Link was a visionary friend, a keen and bold investor, a steadfast partner, and mentioned that Link played a crucial role in Tesla during tough times as one of the key investors.

Besides Musk, The Wall Street Journal also interviewed other shareholders of Tesla, including Google's founder, Larry Page, who described Link as one of the most exciting and excellent young individuals he had ever met.

Michael Moritz, a senior partner at Sequoia Capital, also spoke highly of Link during an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The intent of these individuals was to leverage Link's fame to publicize the news of Tesla's IPO, to drive Tesla's stock price, and they indeed achieved this goal.

Given Link's popularity, the news reported by The Wall Street Journal like "Link's net worth surpasses one billion US dollars," "Link becomes the youngest billionaire globally," and "Link enters the list of America's richest 500," quickly soared to the top of the trending lists on major news websites.

The articles highlighted Link's investments in Tesla, detailing that from the beginning of the year until August, he had invested over one hundred million US dollars, buying 11% of the shares from Musk, which had nearly tripled in a few months after Tesla's IPO.

Thanks to this successful investment, he currently has a firm net worth of over one billion US dollars.

This also surpassed Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, making him the youngest billionaire globally; earlier in the year, at 26, Dustin Moskovitz had become America's youngest billionaire with a net worth of $1.4 billion, ranking 290th on the Forbes list of America's wealthiest.

According to Forbes' list of America's wealthiest released at the beginning of the year, Link was expected to enter the top 500, a bona fide wealthy individual, not merely a singer or boxer.

So while many netizens were still angrily calling Link a scumbag and clamoring to buy Taylor's albums to help her raise her child, they were suddenly astonished to see news like this explode online. Link, merely 21 years old, had a net worth exceeding one billion US dollars? Could it be true?

Some people, incredulous,

Therefore, after the listing of Tesla, she led her asset management team to buy a large number of Tesla shares at low prices, and sold them all when the stock price broke 60 US dollars. Later, they bought millions of shares again around 36 US dollars. From buying and selling, they netted over 65 million in cash and 1.6% of Tesla's shares.

This was the most profitable and successful operation in her career. With these transactions, she and her team earned over ten million in commissions.

Now, she was not only Link's asset manager but also a senior partner at Pioneer Asset Management Group, a star manager at a Wall Street investment bank, and a millionaire.

Although it was only two days since she became a millionaire, every time she saw the money in her account and the shares in her hand, she was ecstatic.

However, after meeting with Link, her excitement gradually cooled down.

Since Link heard they made over a hundred million and didn't even blink an eye, she suddenly felt that becoming a millionaire was not that big of a deal.

"How many shares of Tesla do we still hold?"

Link asked.

"Our company holds 6.5%, and you personally own 10.8%. According to our department's prediction, Tesla's stock price will drop further. If you still have confidence in Tesla, we can continue buying at the lower price range,"

Kathy Wood said.

Link nodded, thinking it was a good suggestion.

Currently, Tesla still had not launched its blockbuster product; the recent surge in its stock price was the result of capital operations. He expected that the market value would fall below 4 billion US dollars soon, and it would still be viable to buy more shares then.

He remembered that Tesla's market value had broken 100 billion in its tenth year and reached one trillion in the eleventh year of listing. If everything went smoothly, it wouldn't be hard for him to become a billionaire in the future.

He then inquired about Bitcoin, whose price had just risen to 3 US dollars, still considered a low price.

Kathy Wood mentioned that they had accumulated 100,000 Bitcoins, making them one of the largest Bitcoin holders on the market. She asked if he wanted to keep stockpiling?

Link nodded, indicating that they should continue stockpiling while selling some, keeping around 100,000 as more wouldn't be useful. No one had become the world's richest person by hoarding Bitcoins according to the Forbes rankings; the focus should continue to be on corporate stocks.