Elon Musk net worth of $267.3 billion is at the top of the list of the world’s wealthiest people on earth. But what fuels a man like Technoking? Read more about the famous billionaire and Elon Musk net worth.
For an entrepreneur who made his first billion in 2012, Musk’s fortune now far exceeds that of MacKenzie Scott’s ex-husband and Amazon mogul, Jeff Bezos.
He hovered close behind Bezos for years before snatching the top spot as the wealthiest in the world in 2021.
The Technoking’s background and early accomplishments have been plastered all over the news and the world wide web to feed the public’s fascination with Musk’s rise to fame. He shares similar beginnings with other people who are the richest in the world.
Elon Musk net worth reflects how he aims for the type of success that’s miles ahead compared to everyone else. But what fuels a man like Tesla’s revolutionary founder?
Elon Musk: What We Know So Far
Elon Musk Short Bio
Elon Musk was born to a wealthy family in 1971. His father was a successful engineer who also co-owned a Zambian emerald mine. But his childhood was not as glamorous as that of wealthy Magda Gabor, whose wealth also came from precious stones and jewelry production business.
While young people indulged in the entertainment boom of the 70s with shows like Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special, Elon watched his parents’ turbulent relationship lead to divorce. And in 1980, Elon chose to remain in Africa when his mother returned to Canada.
The Genius Elon Musk
When Elon was a much younger boy, doctors suggested that his adenoids be removed. For those who don’t know, the unnatural growth of the gland in children can cause deafness. But sometime after the surgery, Maye, Elon’s mother, realized that her son did not lose his hearing.
Young Elon’s slow to zero response towards other people was because his mind was constantly flooded with ideas and had always been on overdrive.
After his mother left, Elon got hooked on video games and developed an interest in computing. As a result of curiosity and self-study, Elon sold his first “tech” at age twelve, for $500, to PC and Office Technology magazine. It was a BASIC-based video game which he called Blastar.
For nine years, Elon was either bullied at school or terrorized by his father at home. But in 1989, he finally escapes his father and arrives in Canada. He was born into money like Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, but Elon traded everything that tied him to Africa for a fresh start.
Elon stayed with his second cousin in Saskatchewan for a year. He supported himself by working at a farm and a lumber mill. By 1990, he transferred from Queen’s University, Ontario, to the University of Pennsylvania, where Elon finished with a BA in Economics and a BS in Physics.
Elon Musk’s Career Beginnings
By 1994, Elon held two internships at Silicon Valley in Northern California. One was at the Pinnacle Research Institute, a startup facility researching ways to store energy more effectively. The second one was at the Palo-Alto-based startup Rocket Science Games.
In 1995, Musk was accepted at Stanford University, where he intended to pursue a PhD in material science. Around the same time, Elon also applied for the company that developed the browser Netscape which once dominated the web until Internet Explorer and the like joined in.
Elon never received a reply from Netscape. And instead of applying to a similar company, Musk dropped everything, including the Stanford PhD program, and decided to ride the internet boom.
Elon Musk Net Worth
Sold Zip2 in 1999 for $307 Million
Elon, his younger brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri started a software company called Zip2. With the help of Angel Investors, the Musk brothers and Kouri founded Global Link Information Network. That gave many businesses, big and small, their first online presence.
The group of three muddled through the fledgling days of Zip2, setting up in a small office with no shower or bed and sharing a single computer.
As the three were individually brilliant, the company acquired contracts with distinguished mediums like the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. Elon attempted to secure a CEO position of the company because he wanted to broaden Zip2’s scope. Unfortunately, the board was unimpressed by his attempt and was denied.
In February 1999, Compaq Computer acquired the company for $307 million, paid in cash. Elon Musk net worth instantly shot to $22 million, while Kimbal received $15 million.
If you’ve heard of Alta Vista, Compaq’s search engine, Zip2 was used to improve the browser.
Sold X.Com in 2002 for $1.5 Billion
In March 1999, just a month after Compaq acquired Zip2, Elon Musk co-founded the online bank X.com with Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho. The company was one of the first federally secured online banks and globalized the use of digital financial services.
In 2000, Elon agreed to merge with Confinity.com. He believed that the competitor’s easy-payment feature would complete X.com’s functionality. The union gave the world PayPal.
Amazon wasted no time and bought the absolute convenience that PayPal offered, at $1.5 billion, in 2002. From the sales, Elon Musk net worth leaped from $22 million to $175.8 million in just three years.
Tesla Inc. Current Value at $1.130 Trillion
It’s no secret that the majority of Elon Musk net worth of $267.3 billion comes from Tesla Motors. Before Musk began the production of his Tesla, the idea of electric cars had been floating around for decades. Gene Winfield’s futuristic cars fed his imagination in the 80s.
The automotive industry sat back and watched Musk in bewilderment. Aside from silent mockery, Musk received little to no support from established automotive companies.
The idea of manufacturing vehicles that ran purely on electricity with our current technological advancement was seen as nothing more than a delusional dream. They were right, and Elon never hid the fact that Tesla was, by far, the greatest challenge of his career. Harder than SpaceX.
At least people had already gone back and forth to outer space by 2000, but the reality of electric cars was still limited to the movies.
In 2008, the company revealed the Tesla Roadster that could run at almost 250 miles on a single battery. Are these modern cars more economical? In today’s computation, it costs $15 to $16 to fully charge a Tesla car, whereas we spend at least $40 to fill up a car with a 14.3-gallon tank.
The company made history after selling 2,500 units of all-electric vehicles in the same year. After Tesla’s success with Roadster, the company began its next ventures of four-door sedan-types and crossovers with Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, and Model 3 in 2017.
In 2020, Tesla Inc. was recognized as the world’s best-selling company for electric cars, with no less than 500,000 units sold in a little over a decade. That same year, Tesla’s market value skyrocketed from $117 billion in January to $658.39 billion by the end of the year.
Elon Musk – Fun Facts
- In 2017, Elon Musk went back to purchase the domain X.com for an undisclosed amount. The only explanation he provided is because the domain name held sentimental meaning for him.
- Elon Musk revealed that his father, Erol, invested $200,000 in Zip2. After Elon described his father as “an evil man,” is it safe to assume that the father and son were able to patch things up?
- In 2011, Elon almost sold Tesla to Google for $11 billion. Though there were sudden surges in sales, the company experienced many “sink or swim” moments due to financial problems. Good thing Musk scrapped the idea after Google tried to buy the company for a bargain and refused to entrust the development to the original brains of Tesla.
- Yes, Elon Musk has his own space station, with rockets and all, but he does not believe in aliens.
- Why stop at space stations and rocket ships? Elon Musk is holding on to his underground highway idea to solve our eternal problem – traffic!
- Elon opened up a school in SpaceX where employees and his children could attend. The learning facility was added after Musk got disappointed with the quality of education that his children were receiving from a regular school.
- Elon Musk believes that the sun can power the world a hundred times over and that China is quietly making advancements in renewable energy.
- Tesla has no CEO. The title was legally replaced with Technoking.
- Tesla Inc. and Ford Motors are the only two of the top 1,000 startups that never filed for bankruptcy.
Elon Musk Net Worth – Frequently Asked Questions
How Much is Elon Musk Net Worth?
Elon Musk net worth is $267.3 billion as of the current year. He tops the list of richest people globally with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, scurrying at second place with $189.2 billion.
Will Elon Musk Become a Trillionaire?
With SpaceX and Tesla Inc, Elon Musk is the first person to accumulate $1 trillion. It doesn’t seem all too impossible with Musk’s consistent and aggressive stride towards innovation.
How Much Does Elon Musk Make in a Day?
Elon Musk’s wealth is tied to how Tesla does on Wall Street. The recent market surge brought Tesla up to $158 billion within twelve months. Elon Musk’s daily earnings were estimated at $432 million for that particular time frame.
Elon Musk Net Worth – Final Thoughts
Elon Musk’s name was still a blur until 2010. And to think, we’ve been using PayPal for decades while most of its users have no clue who engineered such a convenient tool.
Only when his bolder achievements caught the world’s attention did we realize that Elon was involved in many significant digital and technological advancements.
Where, exactly, does the Technoking plan to lead us?
The world holds its breath as Elon takes every step to make space travel more economical and available for all masses. And with “the” Technoking spearheading the project, it may soon become a possibility.
We know all of Elon Musk’s achievements but very little of the messy parts. We need people like Elon Musk who aren’t afraid of crossing boundaries so we may all progress to the next level of evolution.
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