Elon Musk
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 4.9% rally in the price of the electric vehicle manufacturer’s share on Wednesday boosted Musk to $ 3 billion from the founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, who currently ranks first on Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the richest people in the world.
The net worth of the South African-born engineer was $ 184.5 billion at 1:28 p.m. in New York, just shy of Bezos, who has held the top spot since October 2017. As executive director of Space Exploration Technologies Body. or SpaceX, Musk is also a rival to Bezos, the 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 $ 146 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. The company is poised for new short-term gains while Democrats they appear on the verge of capturing both seats in the Georgian Senate and giving Congress control of 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 $ 41.1 billion in unrealized paper gains on 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 a Interview last month that the main purpose of his wealth is to accelerate the evolution of humanity in 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 they added a record $ 1.8 trillion to their combined net worth last year, 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. On Tuesday, Chinese Zhong Shanshan jumped over Warren Buffett to claim the sixth slot after his bottled water company’s shares rose, adding $ 13.5 billion to his fortune.
– With the assistance of Anders Melin
(Updates with Tesla output in the fifth paragraph.)