Nikola Founder gives 50 employees $233 mln of his stock

Trevor Milton, the founder and chairman of Nikola Corporation, is giving the first 50 employees of the electric-truck startup 6 million of his shares after making a promise when he hired them. When I first started this company, I was looking for the best employees in the world, and it was a considerable risk," Mr. Milton said in a video posted on his Instagram page. "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 he's handing over in the Phoenix-based company are currently worth about $233 million. The stock has surged since Nikola started trading on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger in early June, driven by investor appetite for electric-vehicle manufacturers, even as the company has yet to produce its first vehicle.

Mr. Milton, a self-described serial entrepreneur who flunked out of high school and then passed the General Educational Development test, has used social media to promote the firm, drawing parallels to Elon Musk, the world's fourth-richest person. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr. Milton, 37, is worth $4.6 billion, a ranking of the world's 500 wealthiest people. That figure will drop once the share transfer is complete.

He's said on Twitter that he has no plans to sell his own stock, and he has approval from Nikola's board to borrow against his stake to add to his position.