Elon Musk is the most successful entrepreneur of this generation! Musk has gone from relative obscurity to among the world’s wealthiest people in a little more than a decade, thanks to the rise of Tesla stock, which has risen from a $1.7 billion IPO to a $600 billion behemoth.
Tesla’s electric automobiles, is far from Elon Musk’s most insane investments. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has a total net worth of $184 billion as of June 28, 2021, second only to Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $197 billion. At the moment, it’s not the only investment of his, he has invested far more companies which has made him the one of the richest persons on the globe.
PayPal Holdings Inc., SpaceX, DeepMind, Tesla Inc., and The Boring Company are among Musk’s finest investments.
Tesla Motors
Despite the fact that Musk was not a founder member of Tesla, he was instrumental in the company’s early funding round in 2004. Even though he was still the CEO of SpaceX, Musk switched from being a board member to Tesla’s CEO in 2008. Tesla’s first public offering (IPO) was launched on NASDAQ on June 28, 2010. The public was allowed to purchase common stock for $17 per share. Tesla’s stock is now valued at $671.60 as of June 27, 2021.
Musk was expected to earn $346 million in stock awards as part of a performance-based pay scheme, according to Reuters in January 2020. Musk receives stock award options that vest depending on the company’s market capitalization and other growth milestones, rather than a salary or cash incentives. Musk controls around 241 million Tesla shares, or about 25% of the business.
The Boring Company
Musk launched The Boring Company, which specialises in infrastructure and tunnel development, in late 2016. The firm was created on the assumption that traffic is terrible, and that going above ground is unnecessary when there is miles and miles of unused land beneath highways. The company’s objective is to lower tunnelling costs while increasing production. Boring Company plans to do this by building smaller tunnels and developing its own high-capacity boring equipment.
The Boring Company has projects in Hawthorne, California, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. that will be completed in 2020. Musk stated that he will begin selling hats with The Boring Company’s logo to help fund the project. Musk said on Dec. 16, 2017, that he has sold 42,000 hats and raised $840,000. Musk began selling the second branded Boring Company product, a flamethrower, after achieving his target of selling 50,000 hats. Musk sold these flamethrowers for $500 each and raised $10 million in only a few days.
SpaceX
Musk invested $100 million in SpaceX when it was founded in 2002. SpaceX has been a huge success in terms of both financial and technological advancements. In 2006, NASA granted SpaceX a hefty contract. Falcon 1, the first commercial liquid-propellant rocket to reach space, was launched by SpaceX in 2009. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station in 2010. (ISS). NASA awarded SpaceX a second contract in 2012 to assist shuttle crewmembers in getting from the International Space Station to Earth.
Because SpaceX is a private corporation, estimating its value is challenging. SpaceX raised $1.33 billion in three rounds of fundraising in 2019. People familiar with the company’s funding told CNBC in February 2020 that SpaceX was looking to raise $250 million at a price of $220 a share. This would increase SpaceX’s market capitalization to roughly $36 billion, up from $33.3 billion earlier. It is one of the world’s most valuable private firms, and it is one of the most sought-after pre-IPO corporations.
Paypal
PayPal’s board of directors and investors are well-known. Traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders are replaced by the popular online payment system.
PayPal is no longer owned by Musk. In 2002, the e-commerce firm eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, and he left the company. The transaction allegedly netted Musk $180 million.
DeepMind Technologies
DeepMind Technologies, an artificial intelligence startup, was founded in late 2010 with Musk as one of its main angel investors. Google stated in January 2014 that it had purchased the firm for an unknown sum, but it was estimated to be between $400 and $600 million.
Musk as a revolutionary
Musk has been likened to some of history’s most visionary figures, including late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and has been hailed as “intelligent, energetic, charming,” and “an amazing freak of nature” by a former employee.
He revolutionised the way we use the internet, created novel answers to environmental and sustainability issues, and assisted in the funding of initiatives that harness the best brains for the greater good.
Musk is unlikely to complete everything on his lengthy to-do list by the end of his life. Who knows, though? Maybe it won’t matter if we’re all transported to Mars by then.
