Support NeoGAF

[Maiden Voyage]

Elon Musk is worth more than twice Warren Buffett and has $100 billion on Jeff Bezos | CNN Business

How crazy rich is Elon Musk?

edition.cnn.com

How crazy rich is Elon Musk?
The Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO's net worth is now about a stratospheric $300 billion, according to Forbes' real time rankings of the world's wealthiest people.
That means the 50-year-old Musk has a more than a $100 billion lead over second place Jeff Bezos, the Amazon (AMZN) founder and owner of Musk's space rival Blue Origin.
The superlatives don't stop there. Musk, the newest board member of Twitter (TWTR), is worth more than double the wealth of legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) CEO Warren Buffett, who started investing in 1941 when he was 11. The 91-year old Oracle of Omaha's net worth now stands at "only" about $125 billion.
Musk is also worth significantly more than the combined fortunes of former Microsoft (MSFT)CEOs Bill Gates ($136 billion) and Steve Ballmer ($100 billion.) Ditto for Google (GOOGL) co-founders Larry Page ($120 billion) and Sergey Brin ($115 billion.)
Is Musk a sports fan? He could buy all 32 National Football League teams (currently worth more than $112 billion, according to data site Sportico) and still have almost $190 billion left over.
And Musk is worth only about $35 billion less than the gross domestic product of his native South Africa, whose GDP is $335 billion, according to the World Bank. Musk's net worth exceeds the GDPs of Colombia, FInland. Pakistan, Chile and Portugal.
Musk is clearly in uncharted territory when it comes to wealth. He is the richest person ever, according to Forbes.
Still, some historical experts argue that other American industrialists from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, as well as monarchs and rulers like Mansa Musa of the 13th century Mali Empire and Augustus Caesar -- who reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14 -- may have had more wealth when adjusting for inflation.

Original source is Forbe's real time ranking of billionaires:

Forbes Real Time Billionaires List - The World's Richest People

Browse today’s rankings of the wealthiest people and families globally. Discover the net worth, age, and other information about the richest people in the world.

www.forbes.com

 

[Azzurri]

Gooooood.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

 

[jufonuk]

Fucking hell that’s nuts. Elon if you are reading this can I gets 25 million just to experience what it is like to live like that ?

 

[BlueAlpaca]

Wouldn't hurt him to donate a couple hundred billion.... Maybe start a science foundation or something. Jesus fuck I'm not a socialist and I don't hate him or feel resentment, I quite like him, but he needs to do some serious charity.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Wouldn't hurt him to donate a couple hundred billion.... Maybe start a science foundation or something. Jesus fuck I'm not a socialist and I don't hate him or feel resentment, I quite like him, but he needs to do some serious charity.

Knocking up Grimes is an act of charity imo

 

[JCK75]

Elon is the only reason I'm still white pilled.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Good. Genuinely great guy. Just listened to one of his podcasts with Joe Rogan the other day.

 

[captainnapalm]

The craziest thing about his wealth is that his story is pretty much bulletproof against the idea that he is in it for the money. He took all of the money he made from Paypal and poured it into pipedream space and electric car companies that had almost no realistic chance of success. Everyone thought he was crazy. He came within an inch of losing both companies and bankrupting himself in 2008.

 

[JimmyRustler]

The craziest thing about his wealth is that his story is pretty much bulletproof against the idea that he is in it for the money. He took all of the money he made from Paypal and poured it into pipedream space and electric car companies that had almost no realistic chance of success. Everyone thought he was crazy. He came within an inch of losing both companies and bankrupting himself in 2008.

In the podcast from earlier this year I learned that he even sold most of his real estate because he „wouldn’t be in it most of the time anyway“. Crazy bloke.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

I have a bet running with a friend about who's gonna be the first trillionaire. I bet on Elon, of course. Free money, especially once SpaceX has had its IPO.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I have a bet running with a friend about who's gonna be the first trillionaire. I bet on Elon, of course. Free money, especially once SpaceX has had its IPO.

After Tesla, I doubt Musk will allow an IPO.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

After Tesla, I doubt Musk will allow an IPO.

wym?

 

[Ionian]

I remember as a kid my Father would always play the Lotto. I asked him what he'd buy if he won. I was very very young.

He basically said 'nothing', he'd put it in the bank and live off the interest. Was confusing to me.

Was hoping he'd say every new Star Wars toy EVAH for me but no. I was very let down so lost my own interest.

Elon's interest must be astronomical. (Pun intended).

 

[Maiden Voyage]

wym?

SEC.gov | Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Charges; Tesla Charged With and Resolves Securities Law Charge

www.sec.gov

 

[AJUMP23]

Knocking up Grimes is an act of charity imo

Twice.....

 

[jason10mm]

Well, I guess the most benevolent technodictator is Elon, so go ahead and chip me into the Twitter/Starlink dystopian universe.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Our future king

 

[Bernd Lauert]

SEC.gov | Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Charges; Tesla Charged With and Resolves Securities Law Charge

www.sec.gov

Ah, I remember. This shouldn't make him reluctant to do an IPO for SpaceX, though. He already adjusted his tweet behavior.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Ah, I remember. This shouldn't make him reluctant to do an IPO for SpaceX, though. He already adjusted his tweet behavior.

I think he probably doesn’t want to deal with the SEC anymore than he has to but I suppose we will see what happens in the future.

 

[ManaByte]

Musk now controls the woke corporate media’s primary propaganda trumpet and they won’t be able to use it to suppress and silence views they want in the gestapo. These attacks and demonizing are just going to continue and frankly get much worse from here. I suspect we’re not far from him being labeled a literal Nazi.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Musk now controls the woke corporate media’s primary propaganda trumpet and they won’t be able to use it to suppress and silence views they want in the gestapo. These attacks and demonizing are just going to continue and frankly get much worse from here. I suspect we’re not far from him being labeled a literal Nazi.

I’m fairly confident he’s been labeled a nazi for years already.

 

[Boss Mog]

Good, we need our wealthiest people to be based and trying to improve the lives of everybody instead of trying to rule over them.

 

[Wheeljack539]

Musk now controls the woke corporate media’s primary propaganda trumpet and they won’t be able to use it to suppress and silence views they want in the gestapo. These attacks and demonizing are just going to continue and frankly get much worse from here. I suspect we’re not far from him being labeled a literal Nazi.

Agreed. Was hearing an opinion from a co-worker the other day that the left were going to go into him harder than ever before in not only scrutinizing all that he's said but using what happens with Twitter from now on to accuse him of enabling all the "-phobias, racism, etc".

I’m fairly confident he’s been labeled a nazi for years already.

Expect it to ramp up.

 

[Fools idol]

being rich is a weird life. Everyone assumes everything gets better but reality is much different.

Many things get worse in unexpected ways. This level of wealth is extremely daunting and makes you a massive target for things many people would never have imagined. Elon is no exception...

 

[decisions]

Wouldn't hurt him to donate a couple hundred billion.... Maybe start a science foundation or something. Jesus fuck I'm not a socialist and I don't hate him or feel resentment, I quite like him, but he needs to do some serious charity.

He will probably end up doing this for a rejuvenation biotechnology (anti-aging) company when it seems like they will be able to extend the lifespan significantly.

 

[Mistake]

Good for Elon. He gets a lot of shit, some deserved, some not, but puts in serious work and is trying to improve society. I'm personally looking forward to his expansion of Starlink and how he's going to maintain it.

 

[EviLore]

being rich is a weird life. Everyone assumes everything gets better but reality is much different.

Many things get worse in unexpected ways. This level of wealth is extremely daunting and makes you a massive target for things many people would never have imagined. Elon is no exception...

Even on a much smaller scale, everyone wants something from you, and a subset of people will hate you and want you to suffer without knowing you at all. It becomes more difficult to find sincerity in the world. You basically have to stick to people in similar socioeconomic status.

 

[The_hunter]

How did he succeed in a failing industry (automotive), and became the richest man?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Musk now controls the woke corporate media’s primary propaganda trumpet and they won’t be able to use it to suppress and silence views they want in the gestapo. These attacks and demonizing are just going to continue and frankly get much worse from here. I suspect we’re not far from him being labeled a literal Nazi.

 

[bitbydeath]

Wouldn't hurt him to donate a couple hundred billion.... Maybe start a science foundation or something. Jesus fuck I'm not a socialist and I don't hate him or feel resentment, I quite like him, but he needs to do some serious charity.

Charities just tend to fill other peoples pockets with little gain. IMO. Probably better than nothing but… there’s gotta be a better way.

 

[Kraz]

Knocking up Grimes is an act of charity imo

Possibly more transactional like a R.A. Heinlein romance.
Bedknobs & Broomsticks A.I. Cloud Atlas edition.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

All kidding aside of course. Grimes is somewhat attractive for an ugly chick.

 

[Fools idol]

Even on a much smaller scale, everyone wants something from you, and a subset of people will hate you and want you to suffer without knowing you at all. It becomes more difficult to find sincerity in the world. You basically have to stick to people in similar socioeconomic status.

Yup. The social circles you grew up in become pretty awkward pretty fast because most people discuss the struggles of economic life more often than they realise, making you the odd one out.

It's often hard to make new friends in that status group as many people who get there often do it by not being very sociable

It's a strange feeling having all the time in the world and no friends to share it with as they all have to work.

 

[Kenpachii]

The reality is, money and objects are all dead products.

The real happiness is relationships and friends that support you and are not out for your wealth, as a billionaire good luck with that.

 

[DragoonKain]

Based Elon.

He's probably the most fun insanely rich guy who has ever existed. He's interesting and has a good sense of humor. I'm a big fan. Unlike a lot of billionaires, I think the guy has things he genuinely believes in and wants to advance us as a species in positive ways.

 

[NickFire]

Not a dig against Elon at all, but what a damn shame that half the country needs someone this rich to buy something before people even hope they might see their fellow Americans "agree to disagree" again. Sorry not sorry, but the people who have controlled big tech the past few years have been a giant malignant mole on America's face.

 

[E-Cat]

Most likely he will be worth one trillion circa 2025.

 

[HoodWinked]

Wouldn't hurt him to donate a couple hundred billion.... Maybe start a science foundation or something. Jesus fuck I'm not a socialist and I don't hate him or feel resentment, I quite like him, but he needs to do some serious charity.

I think the calculus changes for an individual like him. There is value in people giving money to a charity. But the whole point of a charity is that they will spend the money better than you could to further some cause or thing.

Musk has deployed his capital so effectively and in an impactful way that the money be better with him. All of his money is pretty much already deployed into the companies he runs. Even when he sold stock last year nearly all of that just went to paying for taxes.

 

[nush]

Even on a much smaller scale, everyone wants something from you, and a subset of people will hate you and want you to suffer without knowing you at all. It becomes more difficult to find sincerity in the world. You basically have to stick to people in similar socioeconomic status.

People can share poverty but they cannot share prosperity.

 

[MaestroMike]

pretty sure warren buffett has been steadily donating his wealth hes 91 years old plus he bought the company 57 years ago in 1965 and its still standing, growing and producing great earnings. tesla is still only 18 years old its a teen and had a ton of hype pushing its price up so its price-to-earnings ratio is over 200 berkshire hathaway gets way more earnings relative to its price and its well diversified receiving income from many different sources that are financially healthy and strong. most of elon's wealth is in tesla I assume which as I said are just currently overpriced shares and tesla makes most of its revenue from only car sales. in terms of intrinsic value tesla is not on berkshire hathaways level imo if the economy ever gets hit really hard I'd much rather ride with berkshire than tesla

 

[Torrent of Pork]

I don't think some people understand how money works when you get to these numbers. To the 'donate a 100 billion dollars' crowd, not only would he be immediately stopped by the SEC and sued by everybody else invested in that company who's stock would tank, he would likely be investigated for fraud by the IRS if he actually did manage to get the liquid capital and try to donate it.

He only sold that massive chunk of Tesla stock a while ago because he had to, as stock options are considered income at time of realization, and Musk is a rather 'cash-poor' billionaire. He's not Scrooge McDucking his way into a giant pile of money.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I need to see Putin’s net worth.

 

[BlueAlpaca]

I don't think some people understand how money works when you get to these numbers. To the 'donate a 100 billion dollars' crowd, not only would he be immediately stopped by the SEC and sued by everybody else invested in that company who's stock would tank, he would likely be investigated for fraud by the IRS if he actually did manage to get the liquid capital and try to donate it.

He only sold that massive chunk of Tesla stock a while ago because he had to, as stock options are considered income at time of realization, and Musk is a rather 'cash-poor' billionaire. He's not Scrooge McDucking his way into a giant pile of money.

Can't he just donate/transfer the shares to a charity foundation instead of selling? Genuine question, I have no idea how this stuff works.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Can't he just donate/transfer the shares to a charity foundation instead of selling? Genuine question, I have no idea how this stuff works.

He would immediately be audited for tax fraud by the IRS

 

[V1LÆM]

on one hand i don't really give a shit about billionaires because im a poor scrub but i'd rather elon be stupid rich than most people. the guy is wacky but at least it's fun to see what shit he gets up to and he has actually pushed the earth in a positive direction with tesla/spacex. i can't afford a tesla so i'm no shill but it feels like if it wasn't for tesla then not many other car manufacturers would be bothering with electric vehicles. the amount of teslas i see now is ridiculous. i'm never going to be against getting rid of ICE cars in favour of EVs. as for spacex, well the US government doesn't really seem too interested in NASA and SpaceX has made space exciting. If we can't fix our fuck ups on earth then at least we will have some slither of hope of getting off the planet. i don't quite agree with it because earth is our home and it would be irresponsible to ditch it, find somewhere new, ruin that, and move on again.

what the fuck has jeff bezos done? built amazon up and rode a dick shaped rocket into "space" wearing a cowboy hat?

 

[EverydayBeast]

That much money let’s you know how great Elon is.

 

[Vicetrailia]

That much money let’s you know how great Elon is.

Don’t be a slave bro.

 

[Ownage]

Love him or loathe him. The leftists will be coming for Musk. His technomemelord persona will only get him so far before backlash.

 

[Blade2.0]

Cool, now we should tax the shit out of it.