Elon Musk just became the richest person in the world, poking his fellow space mogul Jeff Bezos from the top point.
O SpaceX founder and CEO is now worth more than $ 185 billion, largely thanks to the continued rise in the share price of his electric car company, Tesla, according to media reports. Bezos, which runs Amazon.com and also the space flight company Blue Origin, is currently worth $ 184 billion, according to CNBC.
Bezos held the richest title in the world since 2017.
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Musk started 2020 with a value of $ 27 billion, and then filled his portfolio historically during the year, CNBC reported.
“Musk’s rise in wealth last year marks the fastest rise to the top of the list of riches in history – and it’s a dramatic financial turnaround for the famous businessman, who was only in the headlines for Tesla’s quick cash burn just 18 months ago. and their personal leverage against the company’s stock, ” CNBC wrote. “The dizzying price of Tesla’s shares – which increased more than nine times last year – together with its generous payment package added more than $ 150 billion to its net worth.”
SpaceX – which, unlike Tesla, is not a publicly traded company – had a great 2020 too. For example, SpaceX launched two manned missions to the International Space Station last year, the first human orbital space flights to take off from the United States since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011.
In all, SpaceX launched 26 missions in 2020, the maximum it had reached in a year. The company also made major advances in the development of Starship, the transportation system is developing to take people to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Musk has long said that he founded SpaceX in 2002 primarily to help humanity colonize Mars – and that he plans to dedicate a large part of his growing wealth to help make that happen.
“About half of my money goes to help problems on Earth and the other half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to guarantee the continuation of life (of all species) in case the Earth is hit by a meteor like dinosaurs or World War III. destroy ourselves, “Musk wrote in a 2018 tweet, which he recently pinned at the top of his Twitter account.
Bezos also wants to help humanity extend its footprint to the final frontier.
“Blue Origin believes that in order to preserve the Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go into space to explore its unlimited resources and energy.” the company’s mission statement says, in part. “How the Industrial Revolution gave way to commerce, economic abundance, new communities and high-speed transportation – our road to space opens the door to the infinite and still unimaginable that future generations can enjoy.”
Musk and Bezos emphasize that reusable space flight systems are the key to achieving these great ambitions. The two billionaires have swapped jabs about each other’s systems and reuse milestones in the past, so any competitive feelings evoked by Musk’s rise to the top of the billionaire would not be entirely new.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.