Elon Musk is many things. He’s an industrial engineer, a philanthropist, holds the longest tenure of a CEO for any automobile company, and he’s considered a certified meme expert. Have his various ventures worked out financially, enough for him to ascend to billionaire status?
Elon Musk is a billionaire. He went from a millionaire to a billionaire in less than 20 years, and in another 10, he’s quickly rising on the world’s top billionaire lists – all thanks to the numerous entrepreneurial exploits under his belt.
How did Elon Musk first become a millionaire, and when did he rise to a net worth of billions? Read on to find out more!
Elon Musk Is Among The Top 10 Richest People in The World
While the world was reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 virus, the subsequent lockdown, and the impact on the world market of industries shutting down and taking a hiatus, Elon Musk steadily rose the up Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Already named #1 on Forbes’ Most Innovative Leaders in 2019, Elon Musk’s net worth rose to reflect his visionary status in the world market (and in pop culture). The main boost behind this meteoric rise can be attributed to the rocketing value of Tesla stock. Their gains in July 2020 have been described as outsized, putting Musk’s net worth value at nearly 69 billion dollars. This means that the value rose by 25% (a whopping $50 billion) in just a little more than a week.
Overall, Tesla’s share rose by a total of 258% in July, firmly securing Musk’s place on that 10 richest people list – the rarest low that Tesla saw was reported to be $1497.06.
Musk Became A Millionaire In 1999
Elon Musk’s various ventures are often brought up as examples of his investing prowess and business-building skills.
The story is riveting and thrilling. At the age of 27, Musk became a millionaire. In 1999, the company started with his brother, called Zip2, was purchased for a total value of $341 million, and Musk pocketed $22 million. He invested $10 million into X.com, which merged with PayPal and was acquired by eBay in just two years. Musk made $165 million and is said to have invested two halves into SpaceX9 in 2002 and Tesla in 2004 and to have never looked back.
Elon Musk Has Overtaken Warren Buffet
If someone were asked to think of the richest person in the world, most would picture or name Warren Buffet. Born at the time of the Great Depression, Buffet is now thought to be the most successful investor in the whole world, wholly owning some of the world’s biggest companies – from Apple and Amazon to Visa and Verizon.
Keeping that perspective in mind, it’s surreal to read in the context of, again, the global pandemic, that Musk has quietly overtaken Warren Buffet in terms of wealth. While it might be short-lived as the market fluctuates wildly in the wake of the uncertainty gripping the world, it was reported mid-July of 2020 that Musk had overtaken Buffet to become the seventh most-richest person in the world. Even if a temporary victory, we can imagine it must hold some significance for Elon Musk.
Musk had previously thrown shade at Buffet for having “kind of a boring job if you ask me.” Buffet also had criticism to offer the young entrepreneur, saying he didn’t understand his “need to communicate”, possibly related to his tweeting habits.
It’s important to note, however, that Buffet isn’t dropping down on the list solely to his company, Berkshire Hathaway, dwindling in their stock performance. Along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet is dedicated to giving away his wealth, pledging that he will only keep 1% of it in total. He makes annual donations to the charities of his choosing, carefully selected, with the plan to give away all of the 99% sequentially.
Buffet recently addressed the criticism of his tax-deductible donations, revealing that his tax benefits were not as they were perceived to be, in addition to advocating for tax raises on the “1%”.
Elon Musk has expressed ambitions closer to those of Warren Buffet’s. He tweeted that he would “own no house” in a bid to get rid of his earthly possessions. “They’re kind of an attack vector,” he said later said in another interview. Addressing the critics, he said “[They] say ‘hey, billionaire! You’ve got all this stuff.’ Well, now I don’t have any stuff. Now what are you going to do?”. Musk said his time was much better allocated to his stated goal of taking humankind to Mars.