CEO Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX is not only the richest person in the world at the moment but also has assets equivalent to the assets of billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined.According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of the morning of October 15 (local time), this 50-year-old billionaire’s net worth is $230 billion. Meanwhile, billionaire Gates ranked 4th with 130 billion USD and billionaire Buffett ranked 10th with 102 billion USD.
Previously, Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett both held the positions of the richest people in the world. Billionaire Musk surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to top the billionaires list for the first time in January this year with a fortune of $185 billion. Mr. Bezos has maintained this title since 2017.
This year, Mr. Musk’s wealth has increased by more than $60 billion thanks to the strong performance of electric car company Tesla’s shares as well as the recent share sale in space company SpaceX that has helped value the company at a low level. 100 billion USD. Bloomberg said the SpaceX deal is bringing Mr. Musk an additional $11 billion.
Billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: Bloomberg
Billionaires Gates and Buffett would not be far behind Mr. Musk on the wealth rankings if not for their philanthropic activities. These two men have donated tens of billions of dollars to charity activities over the years. Meanwhile, Mr. Musk was criticized for not contributing more despite owning huge assets.
Tesla’s boss once said he liked to be anonymous when doing charity work. Earlier this year, billionaire Musk also asked Twitter users how to donate money. He has pledged to give away $150 million, including a $100 million prize in a carbon removal contest, this year. This number is estimated by Recode to be more than all of his previous charitable donations.