SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur; Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person with a net worth of over 185 Billion Dollars (136 Billion British Pounds).
The billionaire hit the top spot after the share price for Tesla increased on Thursday the 7th of January 2021. The boost puts him ahead of Amazon’s founder; Jeff Bezos who has held the number one spot since 2017.
Tesla; the electric car company owned by Elon Musk has continued to rise in value this year (2021). It achieved a market value of 700 Billion Dollars (516 Billion British Pounds) for the first time ever on Wednesday the 6th of January 2021.
The valuation, means that car manufacturer; Tesla is now worth way more than General Motors (GM), Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai combined.
When a Twitter user shared the news on the popular social media platform, Elon Musk replied with “How strange”, in classic fashion, followed by “Well, back to work”
The Billionaire’s views on personal wealth, were expressed in a previous tweet that was pinned to the top of his Twitter account. It read, “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth, and 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 and we destroy ourselves.”
Some observers believe that the recent increase in Tesla’s worth, has been boosted by the ongoing political moves in the United States where the Democrats are expected to gain control of the United States’ Senate in the forthcoming session.
An analyst at Wedbush Securities; Daniel Ives made it known that, “A Blue Senate is bullish for the [electric vehicle] sector, with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards for the next few years.”
Projected tax credits on electric vehicles would benefit Tesla, “which continues to have an iron grip on the market today.”, he added.
Fellow business tycoon Jeff Bezos, has also experienced a major boost in his fortunes in the past year to to his brainchild Amazon achieving much stronger sales as a result of the increased demand for its online store service and cloud computing services as a result of the still ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
His widely publicized split from now ex wife; MacKenzie Scott, saw Jeff Bezos give her a 4 percent stake in his business. It is believed by some that this enabled Elon Musk to overtake him.
Elon Musk becoming the richest man in the world, is more proof of the really impressive run he and his company; Tesla, have achieved in recent times and even during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic that has seen the majority of the world’s economy slowed to a stop with millions losing their jobs and increased lines outside food banks.
Elon Musk had been criticized for his numerous attempts to keep the Tesla production plans open and operational and bringing back Tesla workers to the lines even when the coronavirus pandemic continued its rampage and cases were even reported at Tesla facilities.
Just a little over 18 months ago the value of Tesla stock looked to have dropped to the bottom due to a large extent to regulatory and legal fears, coupled with worries over Elon Musk’s leadership.
As at 2019 Tesla was faced with concerns over a shortage of funds, increased losses and little or no demand. This resulted in its stock value dropping to a near term low by around June 2019.
Now Tesla has more than calmed those fears.
In 2020 the value of Tesla’s stocks began to rise steadily and then climb to meteoric status. This was because the company, continued to post proof of quarters of profits consecutively, and began to also show the increasing demand for electric cars, and their viability.
Some analysts however, worry that the stocks for Tesla might be valued to highly, even as the car manufacturer is now the most valuable automotive company in the world.
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