According to company stocks, the world's richest person's title is subject to change; however, Elon Musk just held the title. Musk is often considered a genius because of his business acumen, ability to communicate style, and position as a tech-savvy pioneer. Musk is the co-founder and CEO of Tesla (TSLA), an electric vehicle manufacturer, and the chief designer and CEO of SpaceX, the aerospace company. Elon Musk earned his wealth mainly through his founded businesses, but he also made money through passive investments. Find out Elon Musk's 5 Best Investments.
PayPal
Musk was a co-founder of X.com in 1999. The company provides online financial services and payment via email services. The following year, X.com was acquired by Confinity and rebranded by the year 2001. (PYPL). In October, PayPal was purchased through eBay (EBAY) for $1.5 billion. 3rd 2003. Musk owned total number of 7,109,989 shares of the PayPal before the deal, making him the biggest shareholder in the company, holding an 11.7 percent stake. Musk has ceased to be an investor in PayPal. Musk sold the stake following the sale of PayPal and used the proceeds to fund his investments in SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla.
SpaceX
Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (which is also recognized as SpaceX in 2002). The company's mission is to transform space technology, including creating spacecraft capable of transporting humans to Mars and other planets of the solar system. NASA awarded the company a lucrative contract in the year 2006.
In 2008, SpaceX began the launch of Falcon, the first private-sector liquid-propellant rocket. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft was docked at the (ISS) International Space Station in 2010. Later in 2012, the ISS SpaceX was granted another contract to help crew members on shuttles in their travels between the International Space Station and Earth. A $2.9 billion agreement with NASA was signed in 2021 to transport people from lunar orbit until the moon's surface aboard SpaceX's Starship spacecraft.
DeepMind Technologies
It is an AI company, was founded in the end of 2010 with Musk as its principal investor. Google announced its acquisition of DeepMind in January 2014 in exchange for an unspecified amount. Musk is known to be concerned about AI replacing humans. Musk is believed to invest in DeepMind, not to earn money but rather to keep pace with the speed at which AI technology is developing.
Deep reinforcement learning is an innovation in AI. However, DeepMind is still looking for practical commercial applications. It has been utilized internally by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to reduce the energy costs of cooling Google's data centers.
Tesla Motors, Inc.
Elon Musk was not the founding member of Tesla; however, he was instrumental in the company's first round of fundraising in 2004. Musk was promoted between board members to the CEO position at Tesla in 2008 and continued to head SpaceX. Tesla's public initial sale (IPO) of shares on Nasdaq was launched in June of 2010, with shares of its common stock being sold at $17 per share. Tesla stock was traded for more than $800 as of March 7, 2022.
Tesla aims to speed up the adoption of sustainable transport by introducing mass-market electric vehicles. The company also announced the development of fully electric tractor-trailer vehicles there in November 2017 which had been ordered by companies like United Parcel Service (UPS) and also PepsiCo. Model S, Model X, Model 3, and the premium Roadster Supercars are among Tesla's electric vehicles. Elon Musk owned 177 million Tesla shares worth around $142.3 billion in December. 28th 2021. Elon Musk continues to be the company's biggest stakeholder and has a significant influence on the long-term strategy of the business and the company's operational goals.
The Boring Corporation
Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure, and tunnel construction company, in 2017. The organization was created to believe that traffic is bad and that driving above the ground is unnecessary. Traffic issues could be "fixed" using the millions of miles of dirt under roads. The company's mission is to cut down on tunneling costs and increase production efficiency.
The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority approved the $48.6 million project with The Boring Company in March 2019 to build the LVCC Loop. This underground tunnel will be located beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center and include three stations and an underground pedestrian tunnel. The Boring Company will officially launch this LVCC Loop on April 20, 2021. In 2022 The Boring Company had completed additional work in Hawthorne, California, and is currently working on a new project in Las Vegas.
Conclusion
As the world's most wealthy person and the founder of several companies which has revolutionized their business, people from all over the globe are fascinated by Elon Musk and how his wealth has grown to such an extent. There is no doubt that Musk is a skilled entrepreneur due to the history of his investment portfolio. While you could decide to invest in any or all of Musk's ventures, your business and investment decisions are your own and should be tailored to your needs.
