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Elon musk just became the richest person in the world, pushing another space mogul Jeff Bezos of the first place.
the SpaceX The founder and CEO is now worth more than $ 185 billion, largely thanks to the continued surge in the share price of his electric car company, Tesla, according to media reports. Bezos, who runs Amazon.com as well as the space flight outfit Blue origin, is currently worth $ 184 billion, according to CNBC.
Bezos held the richest title in the world since 2017.
Related: SpaceX’s first crewed Mars mission could launch by 2024, Elon Musk says
Musk started 2020 at a value of $ 27 billion, then padded his portfolio historically during the year, CNBC reported.
Musk’s skyrocketing wealth over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history – and a dramatic financial turnaround for the famous entrepreneur, who there is barely 18 months old, was in the headlines for Tesla’s rapid cash burn-up and leverage against the company’s stock, ” CNBC wrote. “Tesla’s soaring stock price – which has grown more than nine-fold in the past year – along with its generous compensation package have added more than $ 150 billion to his net worth.”
SpaceX – which, unlike Tesla, is not a publicly traded company – had a great 2020 too. For example, SpaceX launched two manned missions to the International Space Station last year, the first human orbital spaceflight to take off from the United States since NASA withdrew its space shuttle fleet in 2011.
In total, SpaceX launched 26 missions in 2020, the highest number ever in a calendar year. The company also made great progress in the development of Starship, the transportation system he is developing to take people to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Musk has long stated that he founded SpaceX in 2002, primarily to help humanity colonize Mars – and that he planned to devote much of his growing wealth to achieving it.
“About half of my money is going to help solve problems on Earth and the other half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuity of life (of all species) in case Earth is affected. by a meteor like dinosaurs or world war three would happen and we would destroy us, “Musk wrote in a 2018 tweet, which he recently pinned to the top of his Twitter account.
Bezos also wants to help humanity extend its footprint to the last frontier.
“Blue Origin believes that in order to preserve the Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go to space to harness its unlimited resources and energy,” the company’s mission statement reads, in part. “Just as the Industrial Revolution gave way to commerce, economic abundance, new communities and high speed transportation – our road to space opens the door to the infinite and yet unimaginable that future generations could enjoy.”
Both Musk and Bezos emphasize that reusable space flight systems are essential to achieving such ambitions. The two billionaires have jabs exchanged about each other’s systems and reusability milestones in the past, so any sense of competition sparked by Musk’s rise to the billionaire’s top spot wouldn’t be entirely new.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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