January 08, 2021, 02:09 PM
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc and Space X, is now the richest person in the world, after Tesla's share price soared 7.9 per cent on Thursday (Jan. 7).
Musk is now worth US$194.8 billion (S$258.2 billion), or US$9.5 billion (S$12.6 billion) more than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was previously the world's richest person since 2017.
Tesla's market value exceeds Facebook
According to Bloomberg, Musk has added more than US$165 billion to his fortune over the past year, mainly on the back of Tesla, whose stocks surged 743 per cent last year.
Calling it "probably the fastest bout of wealth creation in history", Bloomberg cited consistent profits, inclusion in the S&P 500 Index and general enthusiasm from investors as the reasons for Tesla's astonishing success.
Tesla's market value of US$767 billion (S$1.02 billion) has edged out Facebook's market value of US$765 billion (S$1.01 billion), and only four companies remain in the S&P 500 Index that are larger than Tesla: Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, according to Markets Insider.
"Well, back to work"
However, the outspoken entrepreneur did not appear all that excited about his new-found wealth, at least on social media.
After reports of his new status were published, he tweeted "How strange", before adding "Well, back to work."
How strange
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
Well, back to work …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
According to Bloomberg, he tweeted last year that he intended to sell "almost all" his physical possessions, and said in a separate interview that the main purpose of his wealth is to accelerate humanity's evolution into a spacefaring civilisation.
Musk's stance on material wealth is supported by a pinned tweet on his Twitter profile, which may or may not be serious.
About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half 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
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2018
Top image via Tesla/YouTube.
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