Elon Musk dethroned Jeff Bezos from the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. What seemed implausible last year became a reality this Thursday as Musk became the richest man in the world as per the Index.
Musk is currently worth $194.8 billion. He has $9.5 billion more than Bezos. His company SpaceX is also a rival to Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Dramatic stock moves have helped raise Tesla’s market value much above its competitors in all fields. The South African born CEO has had an unprecedented rise into the top 100 billionaires list similar to the upward trajectory of the rockets his company SpaceX launches.
Tesla share price increased by 743% in the past twelve months. Since its IPO in 2010, its shares have soared by more than 23,900 %, even after a 5 for 1 stock split that took place last year. The reasons for Tesla’s upwards growth can be summed up as follows:
- Consistent profits
- Inclusion in S&P 500
- Enthusiasm in Wall Street
- Diehard investors
Most of Musk’s fortune is tied up as shares in his company. He says that he is not interested in material wealth. He told a German publisher Alex Springer that he believes that his wealth should be used to hasten the process of evolving humankind into a spacefaring civilization.
When he was informed that he had become the richest person on earth on Thursday he tweeted, “How strange.” He then added another post, “Well, back to work.”
Musk has shifted base from California to Texas. Texas is the state where many of the wealthy are relocating to, as it has zero income tax.
