Elon Musk Becomes The Richest Man In History

Elon Musk Becomes The Richest Man In History

Thanks to the huge profits of Tesla, CEO Elon Musk becomes the richest man in history with a fortune estimated at 271 billion dollars.

Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth to be $271.3 billion as of the market’s close on Monday—up some $41.7 billion from Friday’s close. For that, he can thank a nearly 13% jump in Tesla stock plus more than 16 million new stock options, worth $16.1 billion, awarded following Tesla’s latest earnings report.

Tesla’s market cap surpassed $1 trillion on Monday.

Tesla has become the sixth company ever in the U.S. to be valued at $1 trillion, and that means big bucks for CEO/“technoking” Elon Musk.

Musk is in uncharted territory, headed toward $300 billion. For comparison, Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest person to ever appear on The Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people earlier this month, topping the list with an estimated $201 billion fortune.

His net worth climbed as high as $212 billion when Amazon’s stock peaked in July—a full $59.3 billion less than Musk is worth now. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates briefly surpassed $100 billion in April 1999, during the dot-com bubble’s apex. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just over $165 billion today.

When Forbes first began tracking billionaire wealth, in 1982, the richest person in America was shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig, worth $2 billion, or about $5.5 billion in today’s dollars.

About two-thirds of Musk’s net worth is directly related to stock and options in the electric car company, of which Musk is the co-founder and CEO.

On the other hand, Hertz revealed on Monday its intention to provide electric cars for rent to its customers in its main markets in the United States and regions in Europe, as of early November 2021.

Bloomberg indicated that Tesla will supply these cars within the next 14 months, while the Tesla Model 3 will be available for rent in some regions next month.

Hertz electric car rentals will be able to use Tesla’s high-speed charging stations, and Hertz plans to build its own network of electric charging stations.