Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, is the latest richest person in the world. He overtook Amazon’s Jeff Bezos after his electric car company’s shares rose since it became clear that the US would be shifting towards green energy in the near future.
The Numbers
Just under two months ago, Musk surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world. Then on Wednesday he also climbed above Jeff Bezos who had occupied the top spot since October 2007. Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated at a whopping $186bn, which is $1.5bn more than Bezos is worth.
Musk founded Tesla 17 years ago and currently owns 20% of Tesla’s shares. He also owns the rocketship company SpaceX which transports astronauts to the International Space Station in a deal with NASA. Tesla’s market value exceeded $700bn for the first time this week while the company recently joined the S&P 500 index of the US’s biggest companies. The exponential rise in Tesla’s share price is attributed to the increased demand for electric cars due to the government’s drive to encourage cleaner energy.
For the Greater Good
Elon Musk responded to the news of his new status in an understated manner, tweeting “how strange” and later “well, back to work…”
He has said that he intends to invest half his fortune towards “helping problems on Earth” while the other half would be used “to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves.”
He also suggested that the reason why he wants so much money was “not what you think.” Going further, he stated that he does not own “vacation homes or yachts or anything like that” and that he, in fact, has “very little time for recreation.”
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