Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a South African-born entrepreneur, inventor, and visionary known for his groundbreaking work in the fields of electric vehicles, space exploration, and sustainable energy. He currently stands as one of the richest people in the world which is largely fueled by the list of ventures he started or dived in recent years.

Moreover, Elon Musk has expanded his involvement in artificial intelligence, demonstrating a multifaceted approach to its development and application. This move comes amid Musk's legal actions against OpenAI, the developers of ChatGPT, indicating his determination to shape the landscape of AI technology, which according to many is going to be the largest sector in the future.

What Is Elon Musk’s Net Worth?

As of July 2024, Elon Musk has a net worth of $320.2 Billion.

He is currently the richest person in the world according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaire's List and stands ahead of Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault. The majority of his wealth comes from the ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla, both of which have seen significant growth in recent years.

He currently holds 20.5% equity in Tesla, which is calculated to be 411.06 million shares and 303.96 million exercisable options. This equals an estimated $77 billion in shares and $49.8 billion in options, totaling to around $133 billion.

Furthermore, Elon owns 42% of the privately owned SpaceX, which currently holds a value of $180 billion. He owns a 42% stake in the company, which translates to $71.2 billion.

In 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion which he later renamed to X, and currently owns a 74% stake in the company. He also owns a $3.3 billion stake in The Boring Company. Besides these companies, he is also known to own stakes at Neuralink and SolarCity.

What Is Elon Musk's Claim To Fame?

Elon Musk's journey toward fame has been attributed to a series of impactful periods and accomplishments that are explained in detail down below.

• Beginning of his entrepreneurial journey with Zip2: Musk's life started to take shape when he began his entrepreneurial with Zip2, an online city guide software company that he co-founded back in 1996. By the year 1999, the company gained quite some name for it and was soon sold to Compaq for around $300 million.
• Success with X.com/ Paypal: After selling Zip2 for millions in 1999, Musk that year itself founded X.com which came to be known as PayPal after being merged with Confinity. The success of this company led it to be acquired by eBay back in 2002 for a whopping $1.5 billion. This venture shed some limelight on Elon and provided him with a significant amount of capital for his future ventures.
• The founding of Space X: In 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technology Corp. or Space X, and injected a good sum of his capital to research and develop technology to reduce the cost of space exploration and colonize Mars. From almost getting bankrupt after a few unsuccessful missions to developing the first commercial vehicle to dock the International Space Station in 2012, this company slowly revolutionized the space industry, and Musk's future vision for it further turned Space X into a leading aerospace manufacturer.
• Joining Tesla Inc.: Arguably one of the biggest moves made by Elon Musk in his entrepreneurial life was joining Tesla Inc., as the chairman of the board. Under his leadership, the once-struggling EV manufacturer became a dominant force in the EV market and even hit a market capitalization of $1 trillion in 2021. Tesla's rapid growth and innovative approach carved Musk's way to become one of the most prominent business figures globally.

What Are The Businesses Owned By Elon Musk?

Musk's Space X is developing a starship with an aim to colonise Mars, and also make space travel more affordable.

Elon Musk's investment portfolio extends far beyond SpaceX and Tesla, encompassing a diverse array of ventures spanning various industries. Here are some notable examples:

• Tesla: Elon Musk's passion for sustainability and renewable energy led him to join Tesla, Inc., in 2004. Since then he has gone ahead to invest millions of dollars, until 2010 when the company went public, and 13,300,000 shares of common stock were made available for the public for US$17.00 per share. Tesla ended up raising $226 million because of the IPO. Since then it went ahead to become the seventh company to reach a market cap of $1 trillion, which in 2024 stands at $802.11 billion. With the company's success his peak net worth of $340 billion during this period.
• Space X: Of the $175 million Elon earned after the sale of PayPal, he invested around $100 million to create a space exploration company called SpaceX. After three attempts at launching a rocket into Earth's orbit almost caused them to go bankrupt. They eventually succeeded in 2008 with the successful launch of Falcon 1 into orbit. Soon enough the company received more funding after NASA signed a contract for 12 flights (worth $1.6 billion). Since then it reached a valuation of $150 billion, and by December 2023, it hit a peak valuation of $180 billion. Elon owns around 42% of the company, which roughly translates to $70 billion of his net worth.
• X: One of his most famous recent acquisitions was X (formerly Twitter). The whole acquisition process took more than 6 months. He ended up buying the company for $44 billion, which he admits was an overpayment. As of February 2024, X is worth 71.5% less than what Elon paid for it back in 2022.
• Neuralink: Musk founded Neuralink in 2016 with the ambitious goal of developing brain-computer interface technology. According to some reports, the company had received $158 million in investments by 2019, out of which $100 was from Elon himself. According to a June 2023 valuation, the company was worth $5 billion.
• The Boring Company: Founded by Musk in 2016 as a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2017, The Boring Company focuses on tunnel construction and infrastructure development aimed at alleviating traffic congestion in urban areas. The company was started with an initial funding of $113 million, out of which Elon invested $102 million himself. As of the report that came out in October 2023, the company has a valuation of $7 billion.
• SolarCity (now part of Tesla): Elon Musk played a significant role in SolarCity, a solar energy services company founded by his cousins in 2006. Elon led a $10 million investment in SolarCity out of which he put in about $9 million of his own money. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion, integrating its solar energy expertise into Tesla's clean energy initiatives, such as solar panels and energy storage products.
• OpenAI: Musk has been involved with OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization, since its inception in 2015. He initially co-founded the organization and donated close to $50 million during his time with the company. He later departed from the board in 2018 to avoid potential conflicts of interest with Tesla's AI initiatives. In January 2024, Musk sued OpenAI for “prioritizing profits over public good,” which is a shift from OpenAI's original mission.
• Starlink: Musk's SpaceX launched Starlink, a satellite internet constellation project, to provide high-speed internet access to underserved and remote areas worldwide. As Starlink is part of SpaceX, there is no company valuation available to the public.
• xAI: xAI is Elon’s latest investment and was founded by him in March 2023. As of March 2024, the company has raised $134.7 million in funding. They also made their AI chatbot, Grok, open source. Grok is a chatbot integrated with X.

How Does Elon Musk Spend His Wealth?

Elon Musk has been known for aggressively spending his wealth on a list of things, other than his businesses. Two of the main areas of focus are real estate and cars, however, in the last 4-5 years he has been selling most of his assets to focus more on his vision and goals with his companies. Below, is a list of the assets that Elon had spent his wealth on.

Elon Musk’s Real Estate Portfolio 

From the year 2012 to 2017, Elon went on a real estate diversification spree as he bought several luxurious houses in the prime areas of California. He spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million buying these houses, however, by 2021 he sold all of those houses for a combined total of $137 million, making a profit of almost $50 million. Here is a list of some of the most luxurious houses he owned.

• Bel Air Colonial mansion: Elon’s first venture into real estate came with a Bel Air Colonial mansion that he bought for $17 million in 2012. He rented this mansion for 2 years and then sold the house in June 2020 to a Chinese billionaire William Ding, for $29.72 million.
• Gene Wilder's former home: He also bought Gene Wilder’s former house in 2013 for $6.75 million. The house was located in Bel Air and was directly opposite his main house. In 2020 he ended up selling the house to Gene Wilder’s nephew, Walker-Pealman $7 million. 
• Brentwood House: A boomerang-shaped house in Brentwood, California was bought by Elon with his then-wife, Talulah Riley, for $3.7 million in 2014. He ended up selling the house for $4 million in August 2019.
• Historic Hillsborough estate: Elon bought an incredible and historic Hillsborough estate sitting on a sprawling 19 hectares of land for $23.364 million in 2017. In November of 2021, an Entrepreneur named Kirill Evstratov bought the property Musk for $30 million.

Vehicles Owned By Elon Musk Over The Years

Cars:

It might surprise some people, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk owns cars besides Tesla cars in his garage. His collection consists of more than 10 cars, with their combined value being more than $3 million. Down Below, is a list of some of his most exciting cars, and if you are curious about the rest of the cars in Elon Musk's garage, click here.

• 1978 BMW 320i: The 1978 BMW 320i was Musk's first-ever car, which he apparently bought for around $1,400. He ended up selling the car after finding out that one of his interns at Zip2 crashed it.
• Tesla Model S Performance: In a 2019 tweet, Elon Musk stated that the Tesla Model S Performance was his daily driver. So it's not a surprise that he has been spotted driving the Model S numerous times.
• 1976 Lotus Esprit ‘Wet Nellie’: Elon was so amazed by the iconic and barely functional car-cum-submarine after seeing in the movie "The Spy Who Loved Me" that he ended up buying it for $1 million after it was put up for auction in 2013.
• Ford Model T: In addition to all of his high-performance cars, Musk also owns a 1920 Ford Model T. He was reportedly gifted this car by one of his friends in 2013. The original cost of the Model T was $850 back in 1920. Now it's estimated to have a value of $15,000.

Private Jets: 

Musk's fleet of private jets is as cool and stunning as his collection of cars, it consists of four high-end private jets costing millions of dollars. Here is a list of the most extravagant ones out of the bunch.

• Gulfstream G700: The G700 is the newest addition to Musk's fleet, he dropped a massive $78 million to purchase this and replace his Gulfstream G650ER.
• Gulfstream G650ER: The G650ER was Musk's priciest jet, till he got his hands on the G700. He purchased this long-range private jet back in 2016 for $70 million.

What Are Elon Musk's Charitable Contributions?

Throughout his professional career and life, Elon has made several charitable contributions that have further stamped his name as a philanthropist. Here are some of the most renowned contributions made by him.

• Tesla Salary And Stock Options Donation: One of the most well-known philanthropic moves made by Elon Musk was his commitment to donate an entire year of his salary and any stock option of Tesla to the charity in 2012. The exact figures vary as they were tied to the company's performance back then.
• Fidelity Charitable: In 2021 Musk went on to make a huge donation of $5.7 billion worth of his Tesla shares to an unknown charitable organization. Later, it was reported that he donated all of his shares to the largest grantmaker in the U.S., Fidelity Charitable.
• Musk Foundation: The Musk Foundation was founded by Elon and his brother Kimbal Musk back in 2002. Since then, they have donated over $25 million to support numerous causes including renewable research, pediatric research, and human space exploration.
• Michigan Water Crisis: Back in 2018, Musk donated around $480,000 to the city of Flint, Michigan which was suffering through a severe water crisis. The donated money was used to install new water fountains with filtration systems in all of the schools located in that city.

What's Next For Elon Musk?

Musk's roadmap for the latter half and the future is quite a dynamic one, as he has already revealed a bunch of his plans including the further development of Space X with a plan to send humans to Mars by the end of 2024. However, on the month of January NASA decided to delay the plan to 2026, due to a range of technical issues.

Besides that Musk has also been advancing with the development of xAI, and plans to set a supercomputer with Nvidia's high-end GPUs by the end of 2025. 

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