Elon Musk's Big Day: Trump Compares CEO To Thomas Edison As Tesla's Stock Sets Milestone

Wednesday is shaping up to be a good day for Elon Musk.

Tesla Inc. TSLA shares are continuing their meteoric rise in recent weeks. Tesla now has a market cap higher than that of General Motors Company GM and Ford Motor Company F combined. Tesla's stock price has more than doubled in the last three months since it reported a profit in the third quarter.

Big Bonus For Musk

With Tesla surpassing the $100 billion market cap, Musk is in line for a possible bonus payment if the company can maintain it. Musk, who owns about 20% of Tesla, currently takes no salary as CEO.

Tesla's board last year authorized a compensation plan that would make Musk eligible for just under $350 million worth of options if the company's market cap remains above the $100 billion mark for a set period and if it hits certain revenue and EBITDA standards, according to a securities filing. In all, the incentive-based compensation package could eventually net Musk more than $50 billion over the next decade.

The compensation package is being challenged in court by Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta.

See Also: Tesla Hits $100B Market Cap, Gerber Says Stock Is 'Correctly Valued Now'

Trump: 'One Of Our Great Geniuses'

Also Wednesday, Musk got a vote of confidence from President Donald Trump, who likened the electric car company CEO to Thomas Edison.

Trump called Musk “one of our great geniuses," during an appearance on CNBC from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We have to protect Thomas Edison and we have to protect all of these people that came up with originally the light bulb and the wheel and all of these things," Trump said. "And [Musk is] one of our very smart people and we want to cherish those people."

The car company may have been named after Nikola Tesla but, Musk said in 2008, he's actually a bigger fan of Tesla's rival, Edison.

Trump also praised Musk's other company SpaceX, and its effort to develop self-landing rockets.

“I spoke to him very recently, and he’s also doing the rockets," Trump said of Musk. "He likes rockets. And he does good at rockets, too, by the way. I never saw where the engines come down with no wings, no anything, and they’re landing."

Tesla's stock traded around $585 per share at time of publication with a market cap around $106 billion.

Photo by Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia.