Washington: Move over Jeff Bezos… Elon Musk is here. The outspoken entrepreneur behind ‘Tesla’ and ‘SpaceX’, Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world. And this feat he himself terms it as ‘strange’.
Musk surpassed Bezos on the ‘Bloomberg Billionaires Index’. It is a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people. Musk went past Bezos due to a 4.8% rally in the electric carmaker’s share price Thursday. But even as his net worth touched a staggering $188.5 billion, Musk himself was raring to go back to work.
A Twitter account called ‘Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley’ shared news about the 49-year-old business magnate becoming the world’s richest person. Promptly there was a wry response from Musk himself.
“How strange,” Musk responded, and followed it up by saying, “Well, back to work …”
Over the past couple of years, Musk’s net worth soared by more than $150 billion. It is possible the quickest bout of wealth creation in history, according to a ‘Bloomberg’ report. A pinned tweet on his Twitter profile explains what Musk wants to do with the money.
“About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & 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 & we destroy ourselves,” Musk had said a tweet published in 2018.
Musk in the past has spoken about sending humans to Mars. He once reiterated his promise after being declared the richest man on earth. When a Twitter account simply named Mars asked him, “When’s our first date? You’ve been teasing coming over,” Musk responded by saying, ‘Playing the long game’.
Musk has said he has little interest in material things and has few assets outside his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. In an interview last month, he said he wants to use his wealth to build a city on Mars. “I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars,” Elon Musk said. “That means just a lot of capital.”