Gary Zhou 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the Richest Person in the World. But how did he get there? It wasn’t easy, but Musk’s rise to riches was quick as Tesla climbed in market capitalization, which fueled the CEO’s net worth gain.
Musk officially passed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for the number 1 spot on January 7th, after Tesla’s stock surged to over $789.00 a share, sending the Tesla frontman’s net worth to astronomical levels. Musk’s net worth sat north of $190 billion at the time.
It wasn’t always that way, though. Musk and Tesla had to overcome several bottlenecks throughout the years. Lack of funding, production issues, and general challenges in starting a company were things that Tesla had to overcome. Luckily, it did. It is the most valuable car company on Earth, and it is the sixth-most valuable company ever.
However, three years ago, Musk wasn’t even close to being the richest person in the world. He only had a net worth of $19.9 billion, which was 147% shy of Bezos, who enjoyed a $131 billion fortune at the time, Uswitch data shows.
In 2020, Musk’s net worth climbed to $129.8 billion, and he passed long-standing names on the list like Buffett and Gates. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had fallen behind the Tesla CEO. However, Bezos and Amazon were flourishing, especially as in-store shopping had slowed and online deliveries of consumer goods grew, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast forward to 2021, and Tesla has continued to surge upward. Fueled by the news of the company reaching its 500,000 vehicle delivery and production guidance that it set for 2020, the stock continued to become more expensive, only fueling Tesla’s valuation.
Now, Musk sits at the top of the list, 5.2% richer than Bezos, who held the #1 spot from 2017 to 2021.
Incredibly, Musk, who didn’t seem to give much thought to his new title, immediately went back to work as many challenges lie ahead. Tesla plans to open two new production facilities in 2021 in Texas and Germany, and the company also has plans to begin operations in India.
Tesla has become incredibly popular worldwide, and its vehicles are dominating sales figures everywhere. Data from the EV Sales Blog shows that the Model 3 is the main reason for Tesla’s global success as its affordable price point and superior EV tech continues to inspire people to switch to an EV. It was the most popular vehicle in Norway in December 2020, a country with a higher market share of EVs in 2020 than gas-powered cars. It was also China’s most popular electric vehicle, selling over 116,000 units within the first 11 months of the year.
Moving forward, Musk’s mission hasn’t changed since his early days at Tesla. The focus still remains on accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy, and thanks to the company’s lineup of sustainable cars, the mission has been an overwhelming success thus far.
Original Publication by Joey Klender at Teslarati.
