![[서울신문] Musk, the richest man in the world, beating Bezos “How strange, let’s work”](https://img.seoul.co.kr/img/upload/2021/01/08/SSI_20210108032426.jpg "[서울신문] Musk, the richest man in the world, beating Bezos “How strange, let’s work”")
▲ On the 7th (hereinafter referred to as local time), the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk, who became the world’s richest person, visited the Gruenheide factory site near Berlin, Germany on September 3 last year to give questions and answers with reporters.
AFP material photo Yonhap News
“How strange, okay, let’s work again.”
This is what I wrote on social media after hearing the news that the founder of the American electric car company Tesla, CEO, Elon Musk, has become the richest man in the world thanks to the soaring Tesla stock price. Bloomberg News reported that as of 10:15 am on the 7th (local time), Musk CEO’s net worth was $188.5 billion (about 206 trillion won), surpassing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by $1.5 billion (about 1.6 trillion won). Reported. According to CNBC broadcasts, Musk’s net worth was $185 billion (about 202 trillion won), exceeding the base of $184 billion (about 201 trillion won).
It was only 3 years and 3 months that the world’s richest man changed. On the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), Bezos has not surrendered this position for more than three years since it reached number one in October 2017. On the other hand, Musk was barely in the top 50 with a net worth of 27 billion dollars (about 29.5 trillion won) at the beginning of last year.
However, over the past year, Tesla’s stock price soared 743%, increasing Musk’s net worth of $150 billion (approximately 164 trillion won), the fastest growth in history. Tesla’s share price surpassed $700 billion (about 764 trillion won) for the first time the day before, more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai Motor, GM, and Ford Motors combined.
Musk surpassed legendary investor Warren Buffett in July of last year to take the 7th place in the world’s top rankings, and in November, he climbed to second place, even passing Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He owns a 20% stake in Tesla, has unrealized profits from stock options reaching $42 billion (about 46 trillion won) and has few other assets.
On the other hand, Bezos allowed Musk to chase as Amazon’s share price has recently slowed. This is because the Democratic Party is expected to strengthen regulations in the new year as the’Blue Wave’, which took control of the administration and the Senate and House, is completed. In addition, the divorce from his ex-wife McKenzie Scott and taking 4% of the company’s stock had some effect.
Musk and Bezos are rivals not only in the rich rankings, but also in the business area. Musk, a South African native, runs a private space exploration company in addition to Tesla, SpaceX, and Bezos also runs Blue Origin, a space exploration company. In particular, Musk is said to have little interest in wealth and will not spare money to achieve the dream of the opening of the space age. In a recent interview, he said, “I want to contribute as much capital as possible to the city of Mars.”
His fortune management philosophy on Twitter was: “About half of my money is spent helping solve problems on Earth, half as if dinosaurs were extinct in comet collisions, or as World War III broke out and we ourselves “It’s used to help build a self-sufficient city on Mars to ensure the sustainability of all living things in the event of destruction.”
Bloomberg reported that Tesla’s stock price, which produced only 500,000 electric vehicles in the past year, is far from performance, but predicted that the Democratic Party’s administration and the parliament will give power to the electric car era.
Byung-sun Lim, Secretary General, Peace Research Institute [email protected]