How Elon Musk became the world’s richest man with £87billion net worth

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has officially become the richest person in the world.

The entrepreneur surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is worth around $184billion, and has been the richest person on the planet since 2017.

When Musk heard the news, he commented: “How strange. Well, back to work…”

The businessman’s wealth has surged over the last year, and he has become the fastest person to reach the top of the rich list in history, according to a Bloomberg report.

So how much is Elon Musk’s net worth? And how did he become the richest man in the world? Here we explore.

Elon Musk net worth

Elon Musk has an estimated net worth of $188.5billion (£87billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

At the beginning of 2020, Musk was worth around $27billion (£19.9billion), but Tesla’s surging share price added more than $150billion (£110.6billion) to his net worth.

Tesla has been boosted more than eight-fold, and is now the world’s most valuable carmaker.

Musk has a 20% stake in the carmaker, and about $42billion of gains on vested stock options, according to Bloomberg.

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A pinned tweet on Musk’s Twitter explains what he wants to do with the money: “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves.”

How did Elon Musk become the world’s richest person?

Musk co-founded internet payments company PayPal, which he sold in 2002.

His company SpaceX sent the world’s most powerful rocket into space and prepaid a mini submarine which was designed to rescue a Thai football team stuck in a cave.

In 2018 he signed a deal with Tesla about his salary from the company.

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The compensation package ties his earnings to the company’s financial performance, and he doesn’t receive a salary.

Musk wouldn’t take a pay check until the company reached $100 billion (£81 billion) market cap.

In May 2020 Musk qualified for the compensation package after Tesla hit certain goals.

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As well as Tesla and SpaceX, Musk also helms The Boris Company, which he founded in 2016 to develop and construct an underground tunnel in Los Angeles.

Despite being a multibillionaire, he says he enjoys inexpensive hobbies like listening to music, playing video games and reading books.

He explained that at the end of the day he likes to “hang out with kids, see friends, normal stuff".

“Sometimes I go crazy on Twitter. But usually it’s work more,” he added.

• Spacex
• Elon Musk
• Money
• Net Worth

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