Johannesburg – Tesla Inc. the American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California share price climbed all through 2020 and has now helped their chief executive become the richest man in the world, surpassing Amazon.com Inc’s top boss Jeff Bezos.
According to Bloomberg News, on Thursday, the electric-automaker’s shares surged 7.9%, boosting Musk past Amazon.com Inc. founder Bezos on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
Bloomberg said that Musk is worth $194.8 billion, or $9.5 billion more than Bezos, whose Blue Origin is a rival to Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Ltd., or SpaceX, in the private space race.
The South Africa-born engineer has added more than $165 billion to his fortune.
Also read: WhatsApp will block you if you don’t agree to new data sharing policy
South Africans reacted to the news of a South African born becoming the richest man in the world.
Take a look at some of the tweets below:
https://twitter.com/Spiwo/status/1347426213372035072?s=20
If anyone’s wondering what Elon Musk is doing with $190B : pic.twitter.com/bNlGuZCVf7
— Mohamed Enieb (@its_menieb) January 8, 2021
World's richest people 2021:
1.🇿🇦🇺🇸Elon Musk
2.🇺🇸Jeff Bezos
3.🇺🇸Bill Gates
4.🇫🇷Bernard Arnault
5.🇺🇸Mark Zuckerberg
6.🇨🇳Zhong Shanshan
7.🇺🇸Warren Buffett
8.🇺🇸Larry Page
9.🇺🇸Sergey Brin
10.🇺🇸Larry Ellison
11.🇺🇸Steve Ballmer
12.🇫🇷F. Bettencourt Meyers
13.🇮🇳Mukesh Ambani-Bloomberg
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) January 8, 2021
Elon Musk : take my credit card , buy me a coke and buy something for yourself.
5mins later
Me : pic.twitter.com/tVAycFGOUI
— SHERLOCK ♟💧 (@Ntiamoah_holmes) January 7, 2021
Don’t forget Elon Musk is from South Africa , and he studied at university of Pretoria… He’s now the richest man on Earth …
— Ndivhuwo Muhanelwa (@NOCHILL_GOD) January 7, 2021
Elon Musk must come back home to South Africa now… pic.twitter.com/WNXCpqXMgp
— HeNdRy™ (@hendrickmaduna) January 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/updates_afro/status/1347252200347758592?s=20
I know y’all are afraid to say it but I’ll say it…South Africa is the richest person on Earth, mxm I mean Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/cRR5OYpuW5
— Ntando (@Just_Nandos) January 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/TheKingOfLove_/status/1347421186679042049?s=20
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
