Photograph — biography.com

In early November 2020, Elon Musk, South Africa’s business magnate and industrial designer overtook Facebook’s  Mark Zuckerberg to become the world’s fourth-richest person. But barely two months later, his increased fortune landed him the position of the world’s richest person ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. 

As of Thursday 6, January 2021, Musk displaced French billionaire Bernard Arnault when shares of his electric-vehicle Tesla rose by 7 percent, moving his net worth by $9.8 billion, to $175.2 billion.

By 11:30am the following day, Tesla shares rose by 8.2 percent, increasing his net worth by $12.5 billion, to $189.7 billion, making him the world’s wealthiest person, according to Forbes’ estimate.

The SA billionaire founded and co-Founded, SpaceX (an aerospace manufacturing company), Tesla Inc., The Boring Company, Neuralink (neurotechnology company), and OpenAI (an artificial intelligence research laboratory).

Musk’s fortune took an upward turn when Tesla added $165 billion to his fortune in March 2020. Then, he was only worth $24.6 billion. But soon, the share price of the electrical-vehicle company began to skyrocket and eventually rose to more than 720 percent in 2020. According to Forbes, it further gained another 20 percent in the first week of 2021.

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