Elon Musk is a Canadian-American entrepreneur, inventor, and investor with a net worth of $180 billion.
He has made the majority of his fortune as the CEO of Tesla Motors while also holding the positions of CEO and CTO of SpaceX and chairman of SolarCity. He has broken records as the richest person in modern history and the world.
Musk owns approximately 24% of Tesla’s outstanding shares and 43% of privately-held SpaceX.
During the same month, Tesla’s market capitalization exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, while SpaceX was valued at $100 billion. Musk’s net worth reached around $300 billion for the first time.
Musk taught himself computer programming as a kid and sold his first computer game, Blastar, at age 12.
He attended Queen’s University in Ontario and graduated from the Wharton School at the Uni of Pennsylvania with double degrees in incorporation and physics.
He briefly pursued a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University before dropping out to start his career.
Musk’s first experience was a software business called Zip2, which he established with his brother Kimbal Musk.
They dealt Zip2 to Compaq in 1999 for $307 million in money and $34 million in products. He then launched X.com, an email payment company, and later acquired and merged with Confinity to form PayPal.
Musk has continued to launch new businesses, including SpaceX and Tesla Motors, the latter being the company behind a range of increasingly popular electric sports cars. In Oct 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
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Tesla Salary
Elon, Tesla’s CEO, doesn’t get paid a salary. Instead, he has a unique bonus plan linked to the company’s market cap, with 12 milestones based on $50 billion market cap increases.
Elon hit all the milestones, making him eligible for the full $100 billion from the plan. Shares are released quarterly after the board confirms the milestone.
Success
Musk founded Zip2 and sold it for $341M to Compaq. He co-founded X.com, which later became PayPal and sold to eBay for $1.5B.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 to build spacecraft for commercial space travel. Tesla was founded in 2003 and had a successful IPO in 2010. Musk also developed the Hyperloop concept for high-speed transportation.
Elon Musk Net Worth Details
Musk owns 43% of SpaceX and 24% of Tesla. In 2019, he disclosed that 99% of his wealth is in shares of both companies, and his base salary at Tesla is $56,380.
He had a $500M debt owed to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with $60M for a home mortgage.
Musk sold most of his homes to repay the mortgage. He used his liquid cash from previous business sales to launch SpaceX.
Tesla Compensation Plan
In January 2018, Tesla’s board introduced a remuneration scheme for Musk, which could reach $100 billion in value.
The scheme granted Musk up to $100 billion in stock options over a decade, divided into 12 tranches.
The initial tranche of options would be given to Musk once Tesla’s market capitalization hit $100 billion, roughly double the value when the plan was announced. Subsequently, Musk would receive one of the tranches every time the company’s market cap increased by $50 billion.
Musk would not receive compensation if he failed to meet the 12 tranches.
In October 2021, Tesla’s market cap surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, and within three years, Musk had unlocked all 12 tranches of the compensation plan.
Real Estate Holdings
Elon once owned property worth $100 million in only California. He still owns a 16,000-square-foot mansion in the Northern California town of Hillsborough that is over 100 years old and sits on over 50 acres. He paid $23.364 million for the home in 2017.
In the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air, Elon once owned six homes. Among these was a 20,000-square-foot house he acquired for $17 million in 2012, a 7,000-square-foot house he bought for $20 million in 2015, and a 9,300-square-foot house he purchased in 2016 for $24.25 million.
In 2020, Elon made headlines by announcing his plan to sell all his possessions, including his LA homes. He followed this promise and sold each property, including four homes, to a single buyer in December 2020.
Elon Musk Apologized For Mocking A Twitter Employee
Elon Musk apologized for mocking a Twitter employee. Haraldur Thorleifsson, a senior director at Twitter, tweeted at Musk that his access to his computer had been cut off after Twitter’s recent round of layoffs.
Musk responded by questioning Thorleifsson’s work and dismissing his disability. Thorleifsson clarified that he has muscular dystrophy, which prevents him from typing for extended periods.
Following the exchange, Twitter’s HR confirmed that the company no longer employs Thorleifsson.
