The world's wealthiest person: How did Elon Musk get so rich?
CBSN
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, ranked as the world's wealthiest person by both Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, last year explained that the secret to his wealth is simple: "I own 20% of a company that became very valuable."
Musk, whose wealth is pegged at $240 billion by Bloomberg, hasn't always been at the top of the heap. In early 2020, his wealth was just one-tenth of where it stands today, with his then-fortune of $25.6 billion placing him below the likes of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk's remarkable jump in wealth is linked to his ownership stake in electric car maker Tesla, and to a lesser extent his holdings in ventures including Space X and Boring Company. Tesla, though, has been his primary vehicle for wealth creation, with the company's stock surging more than 1,100% in the past five years as investors rewarded the company for its huge growth in vehicle sales. Tesla's revenue jumped from $12 billion in 2017 to $54 billion in 2021.
