Elon Musk overtook Bezos to become the richest man on the planet

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has overtaken Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the richest man in the world. This came amid a sharp jump in the share price of an electric car company. Writes about it The Guardian.

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The 4,8% rise in Tesla's stock was enough to propel Musk to the top spot on Bloomberg's billionaire ranking, which tracks the daily fortunes of the world's 500 richest people.

The 49-year-old entrepreneur's fortune reached $ 6 billion on Wednesday, January 186, making him $ 1,5 billion richer than Bezos, who has ranked first since October 2017.

Musk responded to the news of his status as the richest man in the world with tweets, which, among other things, said "how strange" and "well, back to work."

Musk said he intends to spend half of his fortune "to help solve problems on Earth, and half to help create a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life of all species in the event that Earth is hit by a meteorite or World War III begins." or we will destroy ourselves."

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In a series of tweets, Musk revealed that the reason he wants a lot of money is "not because of what everyone thinks." He said he had "very little time to rest" and had "no vacation homes, yachts or anything like that."

Less than two months have passed since Musk, who founded Tesla just 17 years ago, surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the world's second richest man.

Tesla's share price has surged more than sevenfold this year as demand for electric vehicles surged and the government announced further steps to wean the world off combustion engines.

Tesla, which recently joined the S&P 500 Index of the largest US companies, surpassed $ 700 billion for the first time this week. Thus, the company is worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined.

Musk, who owns 20% of Tesla, was the 35th richest person in the world as of early 2020. He also owns rocket ship company SpaceX, which transports astronauts to the International Space Station as part of a deal with NASA.

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Musk named his seventh child X Æ A-12 last year. The baby's mother, Canadian singer Grimes (real name Claire Boucher), explained that the name refers to "artificial intelligence", a long-range reconnaissance aircraft and her favorite song, Archangel. Neither parent told how to pronounce the name.

Analysts say Tesla's value was bolstered by a Democratic victory in Georgia, allowing Democrats to take control of the US Senate. This means the US is likely to introduce tax breaks on electric vehicles and join the green agenda already set by many European countries.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: "The Democratic Senate is very optimistic and has the potential to be a game changer for Tesla and the entire electric car sector."

Expected tax breaks for electric vehicles in the US will benefit Tesla, "which still has an iron grip on the market."

Ives believes Tesla's stock could reach the $ 1000 mark if the company is able to produce 2022 million electric vehicles by 1.

Last year, Tesla narrowly missed its goal of half a million vehicles. The California manufacturer's annual sales rose 36% after the latest quarter, beating analysts' expectations despite the pandemic that resulted in 2020 production of 499 vehicles.

Musk's wealth could skyrocket as Tesla's share price hike could fetch a record $ 55,8 billion.

However, fears are mounting that stock prices could rise well above real values ​​and the bubble could burst in an impressive way.

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Jeremy Grantham, UK co-founder of US investment firm GMO, credited with defining the peak of the market in 2008, said current investor behavior bears signs of sentiment ahead of the Wall Street crash in 1929.

“I believe this event will go down as one of the greatest bubbles in financial history, along with the bubbles of 1929 and 2000,” Grantham said.

SpaceX recently sent four astronauts to the International Space Station in its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule as part of a commercial contract with NASA. The company will also launch 60 broadband Internet satellites into orbit.

Although Musk has made huge profits for investors, some have expressed concern about his huge salary and criticized his habit of engaging in costly Twitter squabbles.

Pirk, an influential shareholder adviser, recommended that investors vote against his payroll deal because it "unfairly enriches the CEO."

The shareholder adviser also called on investors to vote against Musk's re-election to the board of directors, as in his tweets he poses "a serious risk of damaging the reputation of the company and its shareholders."

In 2019, Musk was sued for $ 190 million in libel compensation over tweets about British caver Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue 13 people trapped in a Thai cave. The jury concluded that the tweets did not comply with the legal regulations on defamation, and Musk was not found guilty.

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