Elon Musk does not receive a salary or only receives a symbolic salary of 1 USD / year at all the companies that he owns. So what did this billionaire do to become the richest man in the world?

The billionaire works without pay

One interesting thing about Elon Musk is that this billionaire does not receive a salary at the companies he is working for, or only receives a symbolic salary of 1 USD/year. In fact, besides Elon Musk, many other billionaires such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg… also receive a symbolic salary of 1 USD/year at the companies they work for.

Many people believe that this is a “trick” for Elon Musk and the world’s top billionaires to avoid personal income tax.

Elon Musk does not receive a salary at the companies he owns (Photo: Newsthink).

However, many people have raised the question if not receiving a salary, where does Elon Musk get his income to become the richest billionaire in the world? The answer lies in the number of shares, shares of companies that Musk owns and other investments.

According to economists, like many other billionaires, Elon Musk’s wealth comes from many unstable sources, fluctuating constantly based on stock prices, rather than real assets. Elon Musk is the first person in history to have a fortune of more than $300 billion, but also the first person in the world to lose $200 billion because of the stock price slump.

Up to now, according to Forbes’ billionaire ranking, Elon Musk is the richest billionaire in the world with a fortune of $ 248.8 billion, far ahead of the second richest person in the world, “brand tycoon” Bernard. Arnault, with an estimated net worth of $207.1 billion

How has Elon Musk’s fortune changed over time?Elon Musk was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in 1971 in South Africa, moved to Canada with his mother and studied for a doctorate at the prestigious Stanford University, but dropped out of the program to pursue a career.

Elon Musk started his business very early, when with his brother Kimbal Musk and friend Greg Kouri founded Zip2, an online travel guide software company. Zip2 was later acquired by computer company Compaq for $305 million in 1999. Elon Musk received $22 million from the deal. That year, Musk was only 28 years old.

X.com is one of Elon Musk’s first startups, helping Musk earn a large amount of money (Image: AP).

In 1999, Elon Musk and his friends Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne and Ed Ho founded X.com, one of the first banks and online transaction services to appear on the internet. To attract users, this service also gives money to subscribers and invites friends to join.

In 2000, X.com merged with competitor Confinity Inc, a software company that develops online payment services. After the merger, the two companies changed their name to Paypal. Two years later, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Musk earned $165 million from this deal.

It was Elon Musk who chose the name X.com for the company he founded and ordered the X.com domain name in 1999. This domain then belonged to eBay, but was acquired by Musk in 2017. Currently, X.com is used for the social network Twitter.

With the money from the sale of Zip2 and Paypal, Elon Musk founded an aerospace technology company, called Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. However, Elon Musk wants his company to be simply called SpaceX.

In 2004, Elon Musk invested 6.5 million USD and became Tesla’s largest shareholder. This is definitely the wisest and most successful investment deal of this billionaire.

Investing in Tesla is Elon Musk’s most successful deal ever (Image: Tesla).

In 2008, Musk spent $40 million out of his own pocket to help Tesla avoid bankruptcy. Musk was appointed CEO of Tesla and has held this position ever since. Currently, Elon Musk is still the largest shareholder of this electric car company.

Notably, in the early days when Musk invested in Tesla, the company continuously lost money when electric cars were still “a distant dream”. SpaceX also faced financial difficulties as test rocket launches repeatedly failed. In 2009, Elon Musk had to live off of personal loans.

However, since Tesla officially went public in 2010, Musk’s net worth has increased sharply as Tesla’s share price has continuously increased. In 2012, Elon Musk first appeared on the Forbes billionaires list with an estimated fortune of 2 billion USD.

Elon Musk’s net worth began to skyrocket during the global pandemic, when Tesla’s stock price spiked. In 2020, Tesla’s stock price has increased by 700%. At the beginning of 2020, Musk’s fortune was estimated at $30 billion, but by the end of the year, Musk’s fortune had increased nearly sixfold, reaching $170 billion.

Elon Musk’s wealth increased rapidly in 2020 and 2021 (Photo: Mashable).

Elon Musk became the richest person in the world for the first time in January 2021, when his wealth surpassed $200 billion. Elon Musk’s wealth peaked in November 2021 when it reached $340 billion. Musk is also the first person in history to have assets exceeding the $300 billion mark.

However, when the pandemic ended, the stock prices of companies after a long period of hot growth gradually stabilized. Elon Musk became the first person in history to lose $200 billion because Tesla shares fell. However, Musk currently owns assets of 248.8 billion USD and still holds the position of the richest person in the world.

Where does Elon Musk’s huge wealth come from?

As mentioned above, Elon Musk’s wealth mainly comes from stocks and shares held by companies, which is why Musk’s wealth continuously fluctuates with stock prices.

Although Musk does not receive a salary at Tesla, the billionaire is given the right to buy preferred shares at this electric car company.

According to Bloomberg, nearly half of Musk’s net worth comes from Tesla shares, more than 20% comes from shares in SpaceX. The remaining assets come from the revenue of other companies that Musk owns such as Twitter, The Boring Company, Neuralink…

Elon Musk often uses tricks to “inflate” the price of cryptocurrencies (Photo: ITD).

In addition, Elon Musk is also a reputable cryptocurrency investor. In 2021, this billionaire revealed that he holds 3 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin.

With great influence on social networks, Elon Musk often makes moves to “inflate” cryptocurrency prices through posts on social networks.

Sometimes, Elon Musk just posts a meme or a word related to cryptocurrencies, which is enough to make that currency skyrocket in price in a short period of time. Surely this billionaire will also benefit a lot from those articles.