The pandemic rained on our parade pretty well in 2020, work, movies, sports- everything came to a haul. However, one sport that this pandemic failed to stop was the race to the world’s richest person’s spot, with the jaw-droppingly wealthy people pushing each other down the line to get to the Number 1 position. While Amazon’s owner Mr. Jeff Bezos had his seat pretty firmly held for a considerably long period of time, Tesla owner Elon Musk recently surpassed Bezos to become The Wealthiest Person in the World.
This came in effect after the car company’s shares soared to as much as 4.8% hiked prices in the expectation that the Democrat-controlled US senate would accompany in a new green agenda. The rise in prices was high enough for this electric car company co-founder to surpass the ex-richest Jeff Bezos by a whopping $1.5 billion.
While we’re here biting our nails on this super-rich becoming a super-richer race, the 49-year-old celebrated the news as if it happens to everybody, by tweeting- “How strange. Well, back to work”. Oh Mr. Musk, it is one amazing half-century of life you’re going to celebrate. Now if you’re thinking how these rich keep getting richer- one answer you can definitely give yourself is ambition and hard work. I mean, imagine being USD 186 Billion dollars rich and not having a vacation home or a yacht or some time to enjoy. Well, that’s what the new number 1 claimed about his life and lifestyle.
Mr. Elon Musk, the $186 billion fortune owner, intends to spend his extravagant money in two halves- The first half is to help problems on Earth, what problems he was referring to is still a question to be answered. How generous! And the second half, well, that money is supposed to “establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life and of all species in case Earth gets hit by a meteor-like the dinosaurs or World War 3 happens and we destroy ourselves.” We just crossed 2020 and we know, the so mentioned possibilities can very likely take place.
Tesla was found no more than 17 years ago and it has taken over the world by a storm. Elon Musk, the cofounder, just surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the 2nd richest man in the world 2 months ago. 2 months in and boom- you see the new richest man in the world. We can’t even recollect how the past 2 months went by. However, Musk’s hard work and dedication alone can’t be credited for the exponential success of Tesla because this electric car company, whose share price increased seven folds this year, was also favoured for its corresponding social and political environment. It is because the demand for electric cars saw an amazing increase in public demand and the governments are trying to incorporate actions such that world dependency on combustion fuels is reduced as much as possible.
One of US’ biggest company, Tesla, for the first time in its being, recorded a market value of more than USD 767 billion. To help understand the extent of how big that amount is, combine the net worth of Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford, and the market value of Tesla would still be more. Musk, along with owning 20% of Tesla’s shares, also owns the rocket ship company, SpaceX, that aims to transport astronauts to International Space station. SpaceX in its recent commercial contract with NASA sent 4 astronauts to the International space station on its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule. The company also aims at sending 60 broadband internet satellites into the orbit.
Now you can guess how Elon Musk, who started at no. 35 in the list of richest people in the world at the beginning of 2020, bagged the Number 1 crown.
However, the mystery behind the excessive hike in Tesla’s share prices, as reported by some analysts, can be credited to the democratic wins in the state of Georgia. The democratic control of the US Senate would mean the advent of the green agenda as set by a number of European countries and thus, might lead to tax credits for electric vehicles. This also opens up doors for many more electric car companies in the industry owing to its scope and resourceful nature. Even though Tesla’s grip on the market is nothing less than extraordinary, we wouldn’t mind seeing some competition, given tax credit would be a piece of good news for Tesla as well as all prospective companies in the industry.
However, it’s not all fancy, because economists and analysts, in various reports, fear that the share prices that have soared way above their real value may soon lead to a change in consumer attitude and would result in one of the most impactful bubble bursts in the financial history of the world. What fate actually awaits for Mr. Musk is still to be witnessed.
In another big victory, Tesla recently took over Facebook to be named the fifth most valuable country, with the market capitalisation $2 billion more than Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. While the democratic senate in the United states brought in good news for the world’s richest and his company Tesla, the picture has been a little less favourable for Facebook, with their shares dropping in by more than 1% in the first week of 2021. It is also claimed that Facebook might fall under more regulations in the coming years with the presence of democratic executive branch. The recent incident of Capitol takeover by Donald Trump supporters also seemed to have put pressure on Facebook. Musk, jumping on the opportunity. allegedly blamed Facebook for the violence in Capitol building. Healthy competition or rivalry? We’re yet to see.
