At this time, Elon Musk is the richest person in the world. Even Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is getting so far behind. What's the trigger?
In the latest list of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk's current fortune is USD 287 billion. In the past year, the South African-born man's wealth has increased by USD 117 billion.
Jeff Bezos is in second place with USD 196 billion, further adrift, even the difference between the two is almost USD 100 billion.
So what makes Elon Musk even richer? The answer is that the share price of electric car company Tesla continues to soar. Tesla shares rose 12.7% on news that car rental company Hertz ordered 100,000 of their cars.
The news sent Elon Musk's fortune up about $36 billion in a day, which was the highest spike in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It is not impossible that Elon Musk will soon penetrate the wealth of USD 300 billion and become the first person to achieve it.
Earlier in the latest predictions, he could later become the world's first trillionaire. The trillions here are of course in terms of United States dollars or translucent USD 1,000 billion.
At this time, much of Elon's wealth has been contributed by the Tesla electric car company he leads. But in the future, his other company, SpaceX, may provide more money as the space business booms.
SpaceX is now virtually unrivaled and continues to innovate. "The company founded in 2002 is challenging the odds in terms of rockets, launch kits and supporting infrastructure," said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas.
"More than one client told us that if Elon Musk became the first trillionaire, it wouldn't be because of Tesla. Others have said that SpaceX may eventually become the most valuable company globally in the entire industry," he added.
The continued rise of Elon Musk's wealth is actually the opposite of his lifestyle which is even more simple. He claimed to live in a modest rented house near SpaceX's headquarters in Texas.
Not long ago, Elon Musk was reported to be completely without his own house, having previously owned several super-luxury homes.
Elon Musk is indeed busy at SpaceX where a few days ago, SpaceX's first mission to transport 4 civilians into space was a huge success. Maybe he spends more time at his company so he spends more time in the office