Tech maverick and EV mogul Elon Musk just became the world’s richest person after Tesla shares surged 4.8%, effectively dethroning Jeff Bezos from the top spot.
Elon Musk’s wealth after valuation of the stocks amounted to $186 billion, $1.5 billion higher than Bezos, who held the position since October 2017.
In true Elon style, he replied to a tweet saying “How strange”, and subsequently, “Well, back to work..”
After the news was confirmed, Elon pinned a series of tweets stating that he intended to use half of his fortune to “help problems on Earth” and the other half “to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuity of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves”.
On his view on personal wealth, Elon said “You should ask why I would want money. The reason is not what you think.” He later justified by saying he had “Very little time for recreation” and that he doesn’t own “vacation homes or yachts or anything like that”.
Since the start of 2020, Tesla’s value grew seven-fold, thanks to the increased rate of EV adoption across the world and the backing of lawmakers and government officials giving additional incentives and benefits over ICE-powered vehicles. The company also made its entry into the S&P 500 index, including the biggest companies in the US, with a valuation of around $700 billion. For comparison, it is more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM, and Ford combined!
Interestingly, in spite of the pandemic and the challenges associated with it, Tesla sales rose 36% in the final quarter after shattering all expectations by various analysts; selling 499,550 cars by the end of the year, just shy of the 500,000 target set by CEO Elon Musk.
It doesn’t end there as EV adoption is set to accelerate even further with Tesla at the forefront of the movement. If everything goes as predicted, the EV trend is expected to fetch Musk an additional $55 billion in the future.
