Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, just became the richest
person on Earth, a title that was previously owned by Jeff Bezos, CEO of
Amazon. This happened as Tesla’s stock price continued to rise, leading to Musk’s
net worth of about $188 billion.
.@elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion.
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) January 7, 2021
Musk and Bezos’ rivalry in terms of personal wealth is
something that has been going on for years. It was reported that Bezos became
so envious of Musk’s success at one point, that it was Musk’s $1.3 billion
incentive package for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada that became the reason for
the development of Amazon’s beauty pageant-style search for its second
headquarters.
The competition between Musk and Bezos doesn’t just end
here, but the two tech lords also own their own spaceflight companies; Bezos owns
his in Blue Origin, while Musk has his in SpaceX. They have also traded barbs about their
rockets and even fought over hallowed NASA real estate, with SpaceX eventually
gaining victory and becoming the only one of both the companies to successfully
reach orbit.
In November, Musk surpassed Bill Gates to become the second wealthiest
person on planet. His personal wealth skyrocketed by more than $150 billion in
2020, mostly because Musk owns about 20% of the company and Tesla’s stock has
grown significantly valuable over the last year or so. Furthermore, as a result
of Tesla’s more affordable vehicles, Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, the sales
of the company’s electric vehicles dramatically increased.
Another major factor behind Musk’s continuous success has
been the 10-year compensation package that he signed with the company back in
2018. As a result, he is rewarded with a raft of company stock options every
time a new milestone is achieved. The amount that he received from it earlier
this year was worth around $800 million.
Musk is also known for using his own personal wealth to fund
new endeavors, like how he funded Tesla and SpaceX after becoming a millionaire
running Zip2 and PayPal.
Musk’s title for the wealthiest man, however, is something
that is based on the calculation of knowable assets only. World leaders like Vladimir
Putin and Mohammed bin Salman, for instance, are extremely wealthy in ways
that are not as simple to calculate, while also possessing access to the
vast wealth of their nations.
