Elon Musk is now the world's richest person
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, Inc., is now officially the richest person in the world.
Elon Musk is now the world's richest person / Source: elonrmuskk (IG)
The title was previously held by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who was the world's richest person since 2017 until Musk surpassed him on January 7.
Bloomberg News reported that Musk's net worth has now skyrocketed to $194.8 billion after Tesla's shares surged 7.9% on Thursday. His net worth is now $9.5 billion greater than that of Bezos.
Moreover, Musk had reportedly added $165.5 billion to his wealth in 2020.
The new richest person in the world reacted to the news on Twitter by simply saying, “How strange” and “Well, back to work.”
Elon Musk had a 6-word reaction to the news that he's now the richest person in the world / Source: teslaownersSV (Twitter)
SpaceX is California-based aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services, which developed the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft that flew astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
It was a historic event in human space flight because it's been almost a decade since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) last sent astronauts to the ISS, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
In a pinned tweet on his Twitter page, Musk emphasized what his greatest mission and vision is as SpaceX founder.
His tweet reads, “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves.”
Elon Musk aims to establish a self-sustaining city on Mars / Source: elonrmuskk (IG)
Meanwhile, Tesla Inc., where Musk is CEO and product architect, is an American electric automobile manufacturer and clean energy company.
They're best known for championing sustainable energy and also for their Autopilot or fully automated self-driving cars.
And speaking of popularity, Elon Musk has also made headlines several times due to reasons completely unrelated to the advanced technology that his companies are developing.
Musk was dragged into the nasty divorce of Hollywood A-list star Johnny Depp and Aquaman actress Amber Heard in 2016.
He has however denied all allegations that he got involved with Heard while she was still with Depp and set the record straight by saying he only started going out with Heard a month after she filed for divorce.
Elon Musk with son X AE A-XII / Source: elonrmuskk (IG)
In May 2018, Musk began dating Canadian musician Grimes and they welcomed their son on May 4, 2020.
They became a trending topic after revealing that they named their baby "X Æ A-12."
But since it's illegal under California law to name a child with characters that aren't part of the modern English alphabet, they later changed his name to “X AE A-XII", with "X" as his first name and "AE A-XII" as his middle name.
For more lifestyle content, head out to GMA's Lifestyle page.
You might also want to read about why Bill gates stepped down from Microsoft board.