Elon Musk Becomes The Richest Person On Earth, Surpassing Jeff Bezos

2020 and early 2021 saw everything from the 'COVID-19' coronavirus to the rerisen Bitcoin, to the U.S. Presidential Election and more.

Among the many that struggled financially due to their employers having a hard time, or entrepreneurs struggling due to the lack of demand amid the crisis, some managed to propel themselves beyond others, capable of redefining the meaning of "rich".

One of whom, is Elon Musk.

While Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the first "centibillionaire" in the modern history of tech back in the days, to then again became a centibillionaire for the second time, he was followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

They were then joined by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who became the youngest centibillionaire ever.

And as if the club isn't elite enough, then came serial entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Following the coronavirus pandemic, Musk's wealth grew tremendously that on January 7th, 2021, he surpassed Bezos and became the world's wealthiest man at $195 billion, or $10 billion richer than Bezos.

Musk surpassing Bezos’ extravagant personal wealth of around $185 billion marks Musk's achievement after years-long rivalry between the two tech magnates, which is often centers on the accomplishments of their respective businesses.

Previously, Bezos was reportedly so envious of Musk’s success in securing a $1.3 billion incentive package for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada that it served as the genesis for Amazon’s beauty pageant-style search for its second headquarters.

Bezos has a spaceflight company in Blue Origin, whish is very similar to Elon Musk's SpaceX.

But Musk's real achievement that propelled him way past Bezos, is largely caused by the Tesla stocks he owns.

TSLA at Nasdaq Composite was at $ 816,04 per share on January 7, valuing the company at over $760 billion. This makes the company's valuation to have increased more than 700% in the past 12 months alone.

Owning around 20% of the electric vehicle and clean energy company, Musk's personal wealth increased as Tesla's stock has grown incredibly valuable.

And in 2020 alone, Musk's wealth soared by more than $150 billion.

“How strange,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “Well, back to work ...”

Musk benefits also because his Tesla stock stash continues to grow.

After Musk signed a major 10-year compensation package with the company in 2018, Musk tied his personal earnings to Tesla’s stock price and revenue goals. With the deal, Musk is given the company's stock options as a bonus, each time the company hits new milestone.

The first bonus Musk earned earlier this 2021, was worth around $800 million.

Elon Musk is one out a few billionaires that have their wealth increased during the coronavirus pandemic. But unlike most on that peer group, Musk claimed in court to be “cash poor” and “financially illiquid” in 2019, and in 2020 said that he would sell “almost all physical possessions,” including his mansions.

It was reported that Musk took loans against the stock that made him so wealthy, to then put that money back to the companies he own.

In the past, Musk has a history of using his own personal wealth to fund new endeavors. For example, when he first founded Tesla and SpaceX, after becoming a millionaire for the first time after selling Zip2, a software company he co-founded.

At this time, Bloomberg Billionaires Index has five centibillionaires, all of whom are people who made their wealth in tech, except Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire businessman who made his wealth from selling luxury-goods.