Jeff Bezos is no longer the richest man in the world.
The title is now held by Elon Reeve Musk!
Yes, that's his middle name you guys.
Known for his eccentric, outspoken nature and crazy far-reaching ideas, Musk is now worth more than US$188bil .
For all you kiasu Asian parents, that's US$1.5bil dollars more than Jeff Bezos.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Bezos, who is the founder and CEO of Amazon, was the world's wealthiest man since 2017.
Back to work
When Tesla Owners Of Silicon Valley tweeted "@elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion." , Musk tweeted back "How strange" followed by "Well, back to work …".
Only Musk can be so deadpan about the new title.
But honestly, as the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of Space X; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, founder of The Boring Company and co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI, work must be all he does.
Netizens question why one man should have so much money
With the world being in such a depressing state and many people still living in poverty, it is no wonder that many netizens didn't react too positively to the announcement.
That's obscene. No one should have that much amount of money when half of the world is suffering from poverty and kids are dying of hunger and malnutrition. $1 billion is enough for anyone to live a lavish life. The extra should be used for uplifting of less privileged humans.
— Sumit Joshi (@skjoshi13) January 7, 2021
no one should have anywhere near that much wealth.. this is terrible
— Like_A_Smart_Person (@dontcuckmebro) January 7, 2021
190 Billion? He could give 1 billion to everyone and still have leftovers. How insane is that?
— Sleeppy (@sleeppyxd) January 7, 2021
I think negatively about the people hoarding mass amounts of wealth. Some billionaires have lost their billionaire status after donating majority of it to charity. He is just hoarding his money, thus categorized as a horrible human being.
— ?? Marie L. Waldman-Depp ? (@maximumtheq) January 7, 2021
No one should be able to own this much wealth and if the do they should do good with it (outside of the companies they own). We should raise tax rates to those above $1 billion to at least 50%
— Essenborn, LLC (@essenborn) January 7, 2021
Possibly replying to all the backlash, Musk later tweeted "Btw, critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems)"
Btw, critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2021
A pinned tweet on his account also reads "About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves"
About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2018
We are in awe of his ideas, dedication and hard work and perhaps he truly deserves all that money.
Will he donate it? Use it for the greater good of the world?
We guess all we can do is wait and see.