“How Strange” tweeted Elon Musk reacting to the news that he has become the richest person on the planet. He followed this with another tweet saying “Well, back to work…” Musk’s reaction came in response to a tweet from ‘Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley’ that read : @elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion.
.@elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion.
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) 1610032845000
Tesla and Spacex CEO Musk on Thursday (January 7) became the world’s richest person after after jump in Tesla’s share price. The rise in Tesla’s share value took his net worth to over $185 billion. He beat Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who has held the top spot since 2017.
According to a report in Bloomberg, “The milestone caps an extraordinary 12 months for Musk. Over the past year his net worth soared by more than $150 billion in possibly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history. Fueling his rise was an unprecedented rally in Tesla’s share price, which surged 743% last year on the back of consistent profits, inclusion in the S&P 500 Index and enthusiasm from Wall Street and retail investors alike.”
At $1.6 trillion, Amazon’s market capitalization is far higher than Tesla’s $760 billion (approximately). However, the Amazon’s share price has been largely stagnant in recent months and as a result Bezos’ net worth.
The 49-year-old Musk has reportedly benefited from Tesla’s stratospheric rise in more than one way. “In addition to his 20% stake in the automaker, he’s sitting on about $42 billion of unrealized paper gains on vested stock options. Those securities come from two grants he received in 2012 and 2018, the latter of which was the largest pay deal ever struck between a CEO and a corporate board,” adds the Bloomberg report.