Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, and the good news is that he plans to spend on public welfare projects
The year 2020 was financially challenging for many people around the world, with the pandemic wreaking havoc on countless businesses, lives and livelihoods. The new year, too, seems to be going the same way for the hoi polloi. But for some of the world’s wealthiest people, the story, as usual, is set altogether differently. The latest to make a big splash in the pool of endless riches is multi-billionaire Elon Musk. The maverick boss of Tesla created headlines when he recently overtook Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person. Though the eccentric, bad boy billionaire — who shocked the world by smoking weed during a podcast — reacted in a matter-of-fact manner to the big news which had the world’s Twitterati and chatterati in a whirl, the fact remains that at a time when many have seen their net worth erode in front of their eyes, Musk has actually seen his value grow exponentially in the pandemic year and at the beginning of this year too. The new decade saw a 7.9 per cent rise in Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla’s share price in the hope that the Democrat-controlled US Senate would usher in a new green agenda and introduce tax credits for EVs, besides joining the green agenda already set by many European nations. The expected tax credits would benefit Tesla, which has a vice-like grip on the EV market. At the beginning of 2020, Musk’s net worth was just $30 billion but Tesla’s brilliant year sent the EV maker’s stock exploding by over 650 per cent since the start of the year. As Musk owns roughly 20 per cent stake in Tesla, the company’s surge had him laughing all the way to the bank as did his stake in SpaceX. As a result, the 49-year-old entrepreneur’s soaring net worth saw him toppling Bezos. Another reason that Bezos lost the top slot was that his divorce with Mackenzie Scott cost him roughly $38 billion in Amazon stock. The company’s stocks are up more than 70 per cent since then, so if the couple were still married Bezos would have still been far ahead of Musk.
However, it was not just Musk and Bezos who improved their fortunes during the pandemic year. Many other billionaires saw their net worth rise, too. Among them is Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan, who founded and chairs Nongfu Spring. His value soared by $62.6 billion in 2020. Similarly, Colin Huang, another Chinese billionaire, added $33 billion to his net worth, bringing it to nearly $53 billion. Dan Gilbert, the 58-year-old owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the co-founder of Quicken Loans, saw his worth rise by $28.1 billion as did Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth jumped by over $26 billion to $105 billion overall, making him the fifth wealthiest person in the world. Where Musk is concerned, his asset value can only rise going forward as the world battles climate change and tries to undo the damage done by fossil fuels by switching over to EVs. The future is green power and green tech and it will not surprise anyone if the coming decade sees more and more “green billionaires” emerging. And when a person like Musk makes more money, it really doesn’t pinch so much as the “cash poor” billionaire wants to spend half his money to “help (solve) problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor…or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves”. So, one can only wish him the best. May he continue to play the Good Samaritan and get “back to work” so he can save the world!
