Tesla boss and biggest shareholder Elon Musk, according to two articles in Forbes magazine, grew his wealth by $US123 billion in 2020 – from $US26 billion at the start of the year to $US146 billion a week before Christmas, and just days before his electric vehicle pioneer joins the august list of the S&P500.
It’s a striking number, and quite possibly the most rapid accumulation of wealth we have ever seen, thanks to the extraordinary growth in Tesla’s share price this year, and the issue of stock options thanks to the company’s roaring success.
Im $A terms, the jump in wealth translates to $A157 billion, or $A430 million a day.
Out of curiosity, we decided to boil that down a little further. It turns out to to be $17.9 million an hour, or $298,700 a minute (up to December 20), or the price in Australia of four and a half Model 3 SR+ electric vehicles (before on road costs) a minute.
Just to put that into context, Tesla’s sales target for 2020 was to sell 500,000 EVs, which translates into around two a minute.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.