Somewhere in the exhaustive corridors of Amazon HQ, Jeff Bezos is probably tearing up a poster of Elon Musk, dreading the very existence of the man who has officially dethroned him as the richest man in the world.
Elon Musk beats Jeff Bezos and becomes richest man in the world
Bezos’ $184 billion net worth seemed insurmountable. Amazon continues to swallow up corporations and expands at an alarming rate, threatening the very existence of global retail.
However, as reported by CNBC News, it took the genius of a South African-born innovator to remove Bezos from a seat of power he occupied since 2017.
What’s even more gobsmacking is the short period of time it took Musk to rise to the top of the throne. In fact, the 49-year-old went from a net worth of $27 billion to above $185 billion in a span of 12 months, making it the fastest rise to financial supremacy in history.
Much of this Musk has Tesla to thank. His brainchild, part of a slew of innovative and forward-thinking projects under the SpaceX umbrella, has seen nothing but gains since the start of 2020.
Tesla closes Thursday with incredulous value price
CNBC News reports that in the last year, Musk made more money than Bill Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion.
That is unheard of. But, perhaps it’s true since numbers don’t lie. For one, Tesla’s share price has risen exponentially in the past year and today, it trades for a whopping $790.
Moreover, at close of business on Thursday, Musk’s electric automotive company was valued at an incredible $737.6 billion.
A South African-born multibillionaire
Musk was born and raised in Pretoria. He spent much of his teen life in South Africa’s capital and before he left for Canada, he had a stint at the University of Pretoria.
Musk’s early business portfolio includes Zip2, a web software company he sold for $307 million, X.com an online bank and PayPal among others.