Many on the internet probably recognize Elon Musk as one of the richest men on Earth. However, not all of them know that Musk is a talented entrepreneur who specializes in risky investments. Ironically, his unconventional business plans earned him over $250 billion and the recognition as TIME Person of the Year.
When talking about Musk, the titles "CEO of Tesla" or "CEO of SpaceX" usually follow the train of thought. However, more recently, he also gained the honor of being TIME magazine's "2021 Person of the Year," being one of the most successful businessmen in the industry.
Elon Musk Net Worth After TIME Person of the Year Award 2021
Forbes gave out a quick highlight of why Musk was selected for the honor. Experts pointed out that Musk is revolutionizing transportation on both Earth and space, thanks to his electric car company (Tesla) and space rocket manufacturer company (SpaceX). Note that these are only some of Musk's contributions to the current age of technology.
Musk is also the founder and major investor of PayPal, The Boring Company, SolarCity, OpenAI and Neuralink. These all contributed to his massive fortune.
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Elon Musk Net Worth 2021: Did it Increase?
According to TIME, Musk earned his money a bit differently compared to other famous billionaires. They noticed that Musk had several radical ideas. However, "there was a method to his madness." Musk notably took a risk with each project by putting his finances at stake in each new business model. In the end, some of those bets made Musk the richest private citizen on the planet up to date.
After dropping out of grad school, Musk and his brother Kimbal founded the online business directory called Zip2. It was later sold to Compaq in 1999, where Musk netted at least $22 million.
Later he invested the money in an online banking startup called X.com. After meeting with Peter Thiel, the co-founder of a payment startup called Confinity, they combined their efforts together and eventually formed the online platform PayPal. When it sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk netted a $180 million fortune.
Not one to take a break, Musk invested the money to his aerospace company SpaceX in 2002. He also allocated a portion of it to the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Both companies nearly ended bankrupt in their starting years. However, Musk never gave up. Eventually, his investments started to pay off. Up to date, SpaceX is currently valued somewhere at $100 billion, while Tesla and its dominance in the industry is estimated at $1.02 trillion.
TIME also posted a photo comparing Musk's earnings in 2020 to this year. Back then, Musk had earned a respectable $25 billion net worth. However, the number is more than doubled, because Musk's current earnings are estimated at $266 billion.
At the time of writing, Forbes listed Musk at exactly $253.8 billion with a 4.39 percent downward growth. Nonetheless, it still made Musk the richest man on Earth in the real-time billionaires' list.
