autoevolution
 

Elon Musk Is Now the World's Fourth Richest Man, Second in 2020 Earnings

By most people's standards, Elon Musk became truly rich the moment his first business, Zip2, was bought by Compaq for $307, landing the young South African entrepreneur a hefty share of $22 million.
Elon Musk 7 photos
Photo: Tesla
Starship test launchStarship test launchStarship test launchStarship test launchStarship test launchStarship test launch
We all know how things went from there. Elon Musk became one of the best-known figures on the planet, and also one of the wealthiest, thanks to his involvement with PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and even the Boring Company.

His methods - well, more like his companies' methods - were questioned occasionally, but no amount of criticism seems to have been able to halt Elon Musk's rise or that of the businesses he runs. In fact, Tesla Motors, his most visible and active enterprise, is doing better than ever despite lots of Autopilot-related controversies and the alleged rally of the traditional carmakers on the EV market.

The Californian EV maker's stock (TSLA) closed at $1,835.64 on Monday, boosting Musk's virtual wealth by no less than $7.78 billion. The company's CEO is also its most important shareholder with 20.8 percent, accounting for 38.7 million shares, hence the constant rise of Elon's net worth every time Tesla's stock goes up.

Right now, Musk's fortune is evaluated at roughly $84 billion, which means he's around $15 billion behind Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who is just one billion short of one hundred. Even so, his constant 2020 earnings - $62.8 billion during a troubled year, especially for the automotive industry - helped him jump to the fourth position in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, surpassing Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault who lost $20.7 billion during this year.

Even though $84 billion sounds out of this world - and it is, considering that's more than the gross domestic product over an entire year for a lot of countries - Musk still has a long way to go if he plans on reaching number one (which we're sure he wouldn't if the first spot weren't taken by somebody he's not on the best of terms with).

That would be Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, a man Musk has repeatedly shot arrows at for the last 15 years or so and received some in return. The net worth of Bezos is estimated at $188 billion, which is more than Musk's double. The Amazon CEO also leads Musk in 2020 earnings with $80 billion compared to Elon's $62.8 billion. However, we can't imagine being intimidated by any kind of wealth once you have $88 billion potentially sitting in your account.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Vlad Mitrache
Vlad Mitrache profile photo

"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories