Thanks to huge profits and a large order for electric vehicles from Hertz, Tesla’s market cap surpassed $ 1 trillion on Monday, and CEO Elon Musk has become the richest man in human history.
Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth at market close on Monday at $ 271.3 billion, about $ 41.7 billion more than Friday. For that, he can thank Tesla’s nearly 13 percent jump in stock, plus more than 16 million new stock options worth $ 16.1 billion awarded since Tesla’s latest report.
Musk already has $ 287 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaire Rankings, and Bezos is now more than $ 90 billion behind. When Jeff Bezos was the leader of the rating, his fortune barely exceeded $ 200 million. Neither Bill Gates nor Jeff Bezos have ever had such a fortune, even adjusted for inflation.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates briefly surpassed $ 100 billion in April 1999. Adjusted for inflation today, that’s just over $ 165 billion. When Forbes first began tracking the fortunes of billionaires in 1982, the richest man in America was ship tycoon Daniel Ludwig, who was worth $ 2 billion, or about $ 5.5 billion today.
Morgan Stanley analysts predict that Elon Musk, who made most of his fortune thanks to Tesla, will become the first trillionaire, and SpaceX will help him in this.
