Highlights of the week: Musk's bonus, US shutdown, Nvidia and Alphabet break records

This week Elon Musk became the first person whose fortune reached $500 billion, and on Friday it became known that Tesla shareholders are not ready to pay him a $1 trillion reward. Nvidia shares hit an all-time high, raising the company's capitalization above $4.5 trillion. Alphabet's stock posted its best quarter in 20 years, with the company's market value temporarily exceeding $3 trillion thanks to advances in Elon and a successful ruling in an antitrust case. You can read about the main events from September 29 to October 3 in our review.

A group of Tesla shareholders opposed the re-election of the board of directors and a new compensation package for Elon Musk for $1 trillion, calculated over 10 years. This became known from the letter they sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This issue is yet to be decided at the company's shareholder meeting on November 6. But even if the bonus is approved, to get it Musk needs to meet a number of ambitious goals - in particular, the capitalization of Tesla should reach $8.5 trillion, now it is $1.45 trillion.

This week Elon Musk became the first person in history whose fortune reached $500 billion, according to Forbes' list of the world's richest people. At the same time, his gap from his nearest competitor, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, amounted to $150 billion. This happened after the stock price of Tesla rose by almost 4% at the auction on October 1, which increased Musk's capital by $9.3 billion for the day. Since then, however, Tesla's stock price has lost about 5%.

Now Tesla is close to the historical maximum capitalization, and Musk's share in it is estimated at $191 billion, Forbes wrote. An additional driver of his wealth is SpaceX, whose valuation has risen to $400 billion, and the merged company xAI Holdings, where Musk owns more than half of the shares.

What else is there to read about Elon Musk?

- Oninvest columnist Roman Kutuzov wrote how Starlink satellite internet has turned from a convenient service into a tool of geopolitics, which is actively used by Elon Musk in his article "Space carrot and stick: how satellite internet has turned into a political weapon".

Shares of Nvidia during trading on Tuesday, September 30, rose by 3% to $187.35, as a result, the market capitalization of the company for the first time exceeded $4.5 trillion. Quotes of the company reacted to the growth of optimistic estimates of analysts: Nvidia received two increases in the target price of its shares - from Citi and KeyBanc.

A KeyBanc analyst raised Nvidia's target to $250, which implies they will grow by about a third. He noted the company's plans to accelerate the launch of its next-generation Rubin processors, which will allow Nvidia to consolidate its lead over AMD. Citi also raised its target price on the stock to $210, emphasizing growth prospects amid investments in AI infrastructure and new product launches, including Rubin CPX.

What else is there to read about Nvidia?

- Nvidia's investments in ChatGPT developer OpenAI and similar projects may become a driver of its stock price growth, according to analysts at Melius Research. Why they do not see a bubble in the company's huge investments in AI - in the article "Melius saw a breakthrough in Nvidia's investments, not a bubble. Will the stock rally continue?"

Warren Buffett's investment company Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to buy Occidental Petroleum's petrochemicals unit, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion in cash. This is Berkshire's largest purchase since acquiring insurer Alleghany for $11.6 billion in 2022, CNBC noted. Buffett's investment firm made the deal after accumulating a record amount of free cash - about $344 billion - and it is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 after regulatory approval.

OxyChem is a manufacturer of bulk chemicals for water treatment, construction, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. The division accounted for about 18% of Occidental's revenue in 2024. The sale is due to Occidental's high debt load, which has exceeded $22 billion after the Anadarko and CrownRock acquisitions, according to Morningstar. Analysts estimate the deal price is higher than OxyChem's expected earnings in 2025, but in line with stronger past results.

Berkshire is already Occidental's largest shareholder, owning about 28% of Occidental. Analysts say the purchase strengthens Berkshire's position in the chemicals business, where it already has a presence through Lubrizol, and allows Buffett and his successor Greg Abel to continue their diversification strategy.

What else is there to read about Warren Buffett?

- Is Berkshire Hathaway's strategy worth following? Morningstar named the three most overvalued stocks in Warren Buffett's portfolio in "Buffett's Three Overvalued Stocks: Morningstar Names Companies to Avoid" .

Since October 1, U.S. government agencies, except for emergency services, have suspended work - Democrats and Republicans in Congress could not agree on their funding before the start of the new fiscal year. This is the first shutdown in almost seven years, how long it will last is still unknown.

Since 1980, such funding crises have occurred 14 times in the US. The record for the longest shutdown occurred in 2018 - during the first presidential term of Donald Trump - then the government did not work for five weeks. This time the situation is complicated by the sharp confrontation between Republicans and Democrats, which could increase the negative consequences for hundreds of thousands of civil servants and the economy. The Trump administration has announced its intention not just to send federal employees on administrative leave, but to fire them, which could lead to an increase in unemployment amid an already unstable situation in the labor market, Bloomberg noted.

What else is there to read about it?

- What was said about the shutdown on Wall Street - in the material of Oninvest correspondent Victoria Sirota "Bureaucratic purgatory at the most inopportune moment: Wall Street about the shutdown in the United States".

Alphabet shares ended the third quarter with growth of 38% - the best result since 2005. The company's capitalization temporarily exceeded $3 trillion. According to the results of the third quarter, Alphabet securities were among the leaders of the "Magnificent Seven" growth, second only to Nvidia. The driver for share growth was the company's success in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as a favorable outcome of the antitrust case, in which Google managed to save the Chrome browser.

The growth of the securities was supported by a strong quarterly report: sales are driven by the introduction of AI in search, the use of Gemini models and the launch of new services like visual search. Alphabet is actively developing AI-based advertising tools and cloud services, which, according to analysts, makes it one of the key beneficiaries of the new technological era.

Analysts MoffettNathanson and Mizuho raised the target price of Alphabet shares to $295, Wolfe Research - to $290. Forecasts assume growth of quotations by about 20%. Most analysts are now advising to buy Alphabet securities: according to MarketWatch, 60 out of 73 analysts have assigned them Buy and Overweight ratings. Analyst Mizuho noted that Alphabet is turning from a "loser in the era of generative AI" to a "winner."

The growth of shares of the largest IT-companies is slowing down, and investors should take a closer look at other segments, according to analysts of BofA Global Securities. According to their assessment, the former concentration on the "Magnificent Seven" is weakening, and the dynamics is shifting to a wider range of companies.

BofA analysts advise taking a closer look at other groups of stocks. "Terrific 20" - large companies from the consumer, finance and energy sectors, including Broadcom, Visa and Netflix. Their securities have outperformed the "seven" by 11% over the past year, although their fundamentals lag behind.

Another group is the Forgotten 50: undervalued companies like Salesforce, Chipotle and Eli Lilly, whose earnings have grown 80% in two years, but whose price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios are now one-third below their long-term averages. Analysts say diversification, betting on the Forgotten 50 and companies with strong earnings growth at low valuations can help protect against a possible correction while opening the door to future gains.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor