Elon Musk, 49, has benefited from Tesla’s stratospheric growth in many ways
Elon Musk, the open entrepreneur behind Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, kicked off the new year, bringing a bold characteristic title: the richest person on the planet.
A 2.8% rally in the stock price of the electric vehicle manufacturer on Wednesday boosted Musk up to $ 3 billion on Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, who currently ranks highest in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the richest people in the world.
The net worth of the South African-born engineer was $ 181.1 billion on Wednesday, just to the shyness of Bezos, who has held the top spot since October 2017. As chief executive of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, Musk is also a rival to Bezos, owner of Blue Origin LLC, in the private space race.
The 12-month deadline for Musk is extraordinary. In the last year, its net worth has increased by more than $ 150 billion, probably in the fastest period of wealth creation in history. Feeding its growth was an unprecedented rise in Tesla’s share price, which rose 743% last year due to consistent profits, inclusion in the S&P 500 index and the enthusiasm of Wall Street and retail investors.
Wednesday’s jump in Tesla stock prices continues to inflate a light-year valuation, apart from other carmakers, by numerous values. Tesla produced just over half a million cars last year, a fraction of Ford Motor Co.’s production. and General Motors Co. and handing over control of the Congress to the party advocating for faster adoption of electric vehicles.
Stock options
Musk, 49, has benefited from Tesla’s stratospheric growth in several ways. In addition to its 20% stake in the automaker, it benefits from unrealized paper gains of about $ 40 billion in stock options. These securities come from two grants he received in 2012 and 2018, of which it was the largest salary transaction ever concluded between a CEO and a board of directors.
Despite his astronomical gains, Musk said he is not very interested in material things and has few assets outside of his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. He told Axel Springer in an interview last month that the main purpose of his wealth is to accelerate the evolution of humanity into a space civilization.
“I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars,” Musk said. “That just means a lot of capital.”
The richest 500 people in the world added a record $ 1.8 trillion last year to the combined net worth, equivalent to a 31% increase. Earnings have been disproportionately high, with five people owning assets in excess of $ 100 billion and another 20 worth at least $ 50 billion.
Just six days into the new year, the ranking has already been overturned by extraordinary rallies. Chinese Zhong Shanshan overtook Warren Buffett to claim the sixth slot after his company’s bottled water shares rose, adding $ 15.2 billion to his fortune.
– With the assistance of Anders Melin and Tom Maloney.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is published in a syndicated stream.)