Elon Musk Surpasses Mark Zuckerberg to be World’s Third Richest Person

Elon Musk takes no salary from the company.

Elon Musk has surpassed Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg to be the world’s third richest person after he added USD 12 (About AUD 16.45) billion to his wealth on Tuesday. The increase is wealth came after the announcement of Tesla’s addition to the S&P 500.

After Tuesday’s opening bell, Tesla’s stock gained 12 per cent. As a result, Elon Musk’s wealth increased by USD 11.8 (about AUD 16.18) billion to reach a high level of USD 114 (about AUD 156.32) billion. This rise in wealth does not mean that the SpaceX CEO will have more spending power. He had earlier stated that he maintains a cash-poor lifestyle and many of his mansions in the Los Angeles area are mortgaged.

Elon Musk takes no salary from the company. Still, he gets a 12-level compensation package that allows him to get loads of stock options that are awarded on the achievement of corporate performance milestones. This alone netted Elon Musk about USD 600 (Around AUD 822.72) million in 2019.

It is also likely that Elon Musk will make USD 555 (about AUD 761) million from the USD 20 (about AUD 27.42) million options soon. To spend his wealth, he might need to sell stock options, but he has not done it since 2016. Tesla will join S&P index in December 2020.

Now, only two people are richer than Elon Musk. The first is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with a wealth of USD 184 (about AUD 252.30) billion and Bill Gates with a wealth of USD 129 (about AUD 176.88) billion.

Elon Musk has signed the Giving Pledge, which means he will probably give at least half his wealth to charity. The philanthropic initiative was created by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates with the aim to encourage the richest people in the world to commit giving away at least half of their wealth to charity. However, Musk Foundation, a charity that was founded in 2002, has given less than USD 100 (about AUD 137) million. The entire website of the charity has 32 words or only 259 characters. People can only hope that Musk will now be more generous than before.