No2: Elon Musk loses World’s Richest Person spot within 48 hours

Pretoria-born billionaire Elon Musk lost his title as the World’s Richest Person to LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault within just 48 hours of reclaiming the title on Monday 27 February.

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ELON MUSK THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN ONCE AGAIN 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is no longer the World’s Richest Person. He has moved to second place LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault took reclaimed the number one spot. This comes just 48 hours after Musk became the World’s Richest Person again on Monday 27 February.

On Monday 27 february, Musk’s net worth sat at $187.1 billion (R3.4 trillion). According to Bloomberg, Tesla stock lifted the billionaire back to the top of their real-time Billionaires Index. Musk was just R2 billion ahead of Arnault, whose net worth was then R185 billion, which also equated to R3.4 trillion in rands.

However, Musk’s net worth is now $181 billion (R3.2 trillion) and Arnault’s is $189 billion (R3.4 trillion). Business Insider reports that Musk lost his number one place after his net worth fell by $2 billion (R36 billion) on Thursday. The drop in net worth is due to a drop in Tesla stock.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD’S RICHEST PERSON

• The billionaire was born in Pretoria, South Africa on 28 June 1971. He is the son of South African engineer Errol Musk and Canadian-South African model and dietician Maye Musk.
• He matriculated at Pretoria Boys High School. The billionaire later moved to Canada where he studied at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. 
• While being a university student, the billionaire and his classmate rented out a 10-bedroom frat house and turned it into a nightclub. Elon and his brother Kimbal launched Zip2 – A company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers.
• While the company got off the ground Elon lived in the office and showered at a local YMCA. The company was later bought for $341 million (over R4 billion) in cash and stock. According to Business Insider Elon earned $22 million (over R300 million).
• Elon thereafter started an online banking company called X.com. The company later merged with Confinity to form PayPal where the billionaire was named CEO. However, he was later fired. 
• eBay then bought PayPal, and as the company’s biggest single shareholder he made $165 million (over R2 billion) of the $1.5 billion price eBay paid. In 2002, he started SpaceX with $100 million (R1.5 billion) he received from the eBay buyout.
• In 2004, Elon made his first investment in Tesla Motors and he helped develop their first car, the Roadster. However, the company was not doing that well until he personally invested his own money to save the company from bankruptcy in 2008. He was named CEO the same year.
• Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX and took over Twitter in October 2022.

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