World’s richest person: Inside Elon Musk’s R3.8 trillion net worth

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has yet again reclaimed his title as the World’s Richest Person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index dropping CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault back down to the second spot.

ALSO READ: ‘Every South African can do this’: Tweeps on Elon Musk’s beer trick

ELON MUSK BECOMES WORLD’S RICHEST PERSON… AGAIN

In December 2022, Musk lost his spot as the World’s Richest Person to LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. On 27 February, the billionaire reclaimed his title as World’s Richest Person and moved Arnault to the second spot. Musk’s net worth was then $187.1 billion (R3.4 trillion). However, he moved back down to the second spot days later.

Now, Musk is once again the World’s Richest Person. This was after Arnault’s net worth fell by $24.5 billion (R476 billion). Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are in third and fourth positions respectively. Followed by Larry Ellison in fifth spot.

So, how did Musk amass his trillion rand net worth?

ALSO READ: Behind the billions: Errol Musk’s net worth, scandals and more

HOW THE PRETORIA-BORN BILLIONAIRE AMASSED HIS NET WORTH

• While he was a university student, Musk and his classmate rented out a 10-bedroom frat house and turned it into a nightclub. 
• According to CNBC, Musk and his brother Kimbal also founded Zip2 – A company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers. While the company got off the ground Musk 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. 
• Musk 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.
• Musk made his first investment in Tesla Motors in 2004. He also 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. That same year he was named the CEO. 
• After some back and forth, the father of 10 took over Twitter in October 2022. CNN reported that the billionaire fired the company’s top executives and made himself CEO.

ALSO READ: Bernard Arnault: 5 things to know about the world’s 2nd richest man