/ world today news/ SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world. His wealth has grown to over $185 billion. The billionaire seemed surprised by the announcement.
Musk was officially named the richest man on the planet on Thursday, narrowly overtaking Jeff Bezos thanks to a 4.8% increase in the value of Tesla shares.
The South African-born electric car maker’s net worth now stands at a mind-boggling $188.5 billion, while Bezos has “only” $184 billion.
The rapid growth of Musk’s personal fortune over the past year has certainly made him the envy of his Silicon Valley peers.
However, his disinterested response to the news on Twitter suggests he doesn’t really pay attention to the details.
“How strange,” the billionaire remarked, before tweeting that he was “back to work.”
Not everyone was thrilled that Elon Musk was making more in a year than some would see in a lifetime, of course.
“This is nothing to brag about, big man. No one should be a billionaire when people are starving,” wrote a Twitter account called “Once Upon a Time Sophie”.
“If you’re the richest person on the planet, you’re living on the wrong planet,” replied another profile.
Many had ideas for how Elon Musk spent his fortune, from ending world hunger and homelessness to donating to random Twitter users.
“Time to end homeless veterans, fund the organizations that have the capacity to solve world hunger and generally spread some love. You have more than enough. Don’t be a bad member of the human race,” wrote a profile affiliated with Black Lives Matter .
“Ilan, you have enough to save us all – do it,” wrote the Spouse account.
But several users cheered his achievements, including the ousting of Bezos.
“You’re dreaming big, Elan.
Many of us don’t care about your net worth.
“We are excited that you have dreams so big that millions can dream them and that together we can create. Keep dreaming,” wrote a popular account.
“The only billionaire who will still sleep on the factory floor. Elon, you deserve this title better than anyone else,” said another very famous profile, whose post about the Tesla owner has over 1,000 likes.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk aren’t just competitors in the tech industry — they’re both determined to get humanity into space.
However, Elon Musk has focused more on a potential Mars colony, while Jeff Bezos is more interested in building reusable rockets to lower the cost of sending materials into orbit.
A subsidiary of Elon Musk and his SpaceX, Starlink won nearly $1 billion in a recent controversial competition to bring satellite broadband to rural Americans.
Astronomers and stargazers, however, complain of light pollution from the thousands of satellites that billionaire Elon Musk is putting into orbit.
Billionaires in general have not been particularly popular this year, given the huge profits they have amassed while the small man and small business have been banned from operating due to government restrictions imposed by Covid-19.
If all American billionaires pooled their profits in 2020, they could pay out $3,000 to individuals in stimulus to every American without changing their pre-pandemic fortunes.
Translation: SM
#Elon #Musk #passed #Bezos #richest #man #world
