Elon Musk eclipses Bill Gates to become the world’s second richest person
Musk is now just $54 billion behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
After Gates, Musk only has Bezos to go
The thing is, Musk is on path to geteven richer, thanks to hisenormous executive compensationpackage with Tesla, which is the biggest of its kind in history. Estimates put the eventual total value of those stock rewards at $55 billion.
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In May, Musk unlocked the first of 12 tranches, worth $780 million at the time. He did so by maintaining Tesla’s average market value above $100 billion for six months.
Musk then unlocked the second and third tranches a few months later, worth more than $2 billion each. By October, he’d qualified his fourth tranche, representing more than $3 billion in potential profit.
Tesla’s market value now sits at nearly $500 billion, with Musk on track to continue unlocking more billions.
For what it’s worth,Forbes ranks billionairesbased on an entirely different methodology. Over onthatwebsite, Musk is only the world’s fourth richest person, behind Bezos, Gates, andLouis Vuitton Moët Hennessy’s Bernard Arnault and family.
Story byDavid Canellis
David is a tech journalist who loves old-school adventure games, techno and the Beastie Boys. He’s currently on the finance beat.David is a tech journalist who loves old-school adventure games, techno and the Beastie Boys. He’s currently on the finance beat.
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