NEW YORK: Elon Musk is the first person to reach an estimated fortune of more than US$400 billion, reported German news agency dpa quoting Forbes and Bloomberg.
His wealth mainly consists of shares in the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the aerospace company SpaceX. US magazine Forbes estimated Musk’s fortune at US$431.2 billion on Thursday and the financial services firm Bloomberg said it was approximately US$447 billion.
Since the US presidential election in early November, the rise in Tesla’s share price in particular has made the 53-year-old significantly richer, at least on paper. Investors are speculating that Tesla will benefit from Musk’s current closeness to US President-elect Donald Trump.
South African-born Musk, now a US citizen, supported Trump with millions in donations during the election campaign and will be part of Trump’s government as he looks to find efficiency savings.
Musk’s companies also include the online platform X, the AI developer xAI and the company Neuralink, which is working on brain implants.
In second place in the rankings is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with an estimated fortune of more than US$240 billion. – BERNAMA-dpa
