Nikola founder to give 50 employees his own stock worth $233 million

Nikola Corporation founder and owner Trevor Milton is giving the first 50 employees of the electric-truck startup 6 million of his own shares after making a promise when he hired them, reported Bloomberg.

In a video on Instagram, he said, “When I first started this company I was looking for the best employees in the world and it was a huge risk. The likelihood of us ever succeeding was like next to none and luckily I found an incredible group of employees that started with me from day one.” 

The shares that Milton is handing over in the Phoenix-based company are currently worth about $233 million. Although the company is yet to produce a vehicle, the company stock has surged since Nikola started trading on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger in early June which was by investor appetite for electric-vehicle manufacturers. 

Milton, 37, is a self-described serial entrepreneur who had flunked out of high school and then passed the General Educational Development test. He has drawn parallels to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as he used social media to promote his firm. 

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, Milton is worth $4.6 billion, which will drop as soon as he transfers his shares.