While billionaires have only existed for about a century, the amount of them has increased significantly in modern history, as entrepreneurs try their hand at making products that will deliver cash flow.
According to Yahoo Finance, Elon Musk has now been named the world’s fourth-richest person, following the rise of Tesla’s shares by 11% on Monday. The electric vehicle (EV) company closed at a record high, and Musk added $7.8 billion to his personal fortune in one day, thanks to his 20% stake of Tesla.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tops the list of the world’s richest people, followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and now Elon Musk. The top four richest people in the world are now from the United States of America.
The EV market has exploded over the past several years, partially kickstarted by Musk and Tesla, and it’s only expected to continue increasing into the future. In addition to Musk’s ownership of the growing EV brand, he also receives share money from his space travel company SpaceX, who recently facilitated the successful return of Crew Dragon’s NASA astronauts back into the atmosphere.
While the news of Musk’s fortune should not come as a surprise, given all that he and his companies have done over the past few years, others cited concerns over the rapid growth of his wealth.
Elon musk fourth richest man in the world.. owner of a company which doesn’t make money and goes parabolic at wall street ..
He is the symbol of this failed system
— 🅰🅻🅴🆂🆂🅸🅾 (@AlessioUrban) August 17, 2020
Whether the news is a sign of a failed system or not, it’s no question that demands are high for both EVs and space travel on the cusp of climate catastrophe, and, luckily for him, Musk is already ahead of the world on both of them.
There’s no sign of Tesla slowing down, as the company hit another all-time high today of $1,923.90, and is currently trading up 3% for the day as of writing.
