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How Elon Musk Became the World’s Richest Man

From a $500 video game to Tesla and SpaceX—this is the extraordinary journey behind his $383 billion fortune.

By Bilal khan Published 5 days ago 3 min read

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, and it cost about 1.5 billion dollars to build. But Elon Musk has so much money that he could buy 250 Burj Khalifas at once.

The most expensive car ever sold is a special Bugatti Chiron, which was bought for around 10.8 million dollars. Musk is so rich that he could buy about 35,500 of these cars.

Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and other companies, is the richest person in the world in 2025. He is far ahead of Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, with a fortune between 380 and 433 billion dollars.

But the big question is: how did someone who was not even in the top 10 richest people in 2020 become number one by 2025?

Today, Elon Musk owns around $383 billion. That’s an almost unimaginable amount. But the real question is: how did Elon Musk achieve so much success in such a short time? This is what people all over the world are searching on Google today.

From his childhood, Elon Musk showed a strong interest in computers and technology. At the young age of just 12, he created a simple video game and sold it to a company for $500—which was considered a very big deal at that time.

As a teenager, tough circumstances forced Elon Musk to work in a lumber mill, where he earned just a few coins, barely enough to buy food. Yet, despite these struggles, he never gave up on his education. In 1997, he successfully completed his bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics.

Hoping to start his career, Musk applied for a job at a well-known IT company called Netscape, but he never received a reply. Around that same time, he was also accepted into Stanford University’s PhD program. However, on just the second day of the program, he made a bold decision to quit Stanford and follow his dream of starting his own business.

Together with his brother, Elon Musk started a city guide website called Zip2. The company only had a single computer because they did not have enough money to buy another one. During the day, the website would run on that computer, and at night they would use it to work on improvements. Eventually, their hard work paid off. In 2002, Compaq purchased Zip2 for 307 million dollars. Elon Musk’s share was 22 million dollars. No one could have guessed that from this turning point onward, Elon Musk’s life would be filled with even greater successes.

With the money he earned, Elon Musk launched an online bank through a website called X.com. Within a short time, it rebranded and became known in the market as PayPal. In 2002, eBay purchased PayPal, and Musk’s share from the deal was 165 million dollars. That same year, he founded a company called SpaceX, with the goal of making space travel easier. SpaceX not only designed its own rockets and spacecraft, but also successfully launched them into space.

Elon Musk has also promised to send humans to the Moon and Mars, and to build colonies there. Alongside SpaceX, he invested in Tesla, which today is the world’s largest electric car manufacturer. Tesla’s cars are not only environmentally friendly, but they also eliminate the cost of fuel for people. These vehicles come with an autopilot system that can carry passengers to their destination without a driver. On a single charge, a Tesla can travel up to 520 kilometers, which is about 323 miles.

After Tesla’s success, Elon Musk also promised to provide internet to the entire world through satellites under the name Starlink. These satellites orbit about 500 kilometers (around 310 miles) above the Earth and are designed to cover every corner of the globe. By 2020, one thousands of these satellites had already been launched. This news created a stir worldwide, and people began rushing to buy Tesla’s shares. The stock price jumped from $250 to $850, breaking all previous records in the stock market.

Through this entire journey, Elon Musk was ranked 35th on the list of billionaires in 2020, but by the beginning of 2021, he had already risen to number one. What is surprising is that, unlike other billionaires, Elon Musk is very different. He does not own fancy mansions or golden bathrooms. Instead, he spends most of his time in his factories, often sleeping on a couch there at night. According to him, sleeping in the factory gives him more peace because it allows him to truly understand the problems of his employees and the state of production.

Elon Musk’s long journey of success must have been inspiring for you. I hope you enjoyed the effort I put into presenting it. Thank you so much

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About the Creator

Bilal khan

Welcome to my corner on Vocal Media! I bring you inspiring journeys of great people, useful life hacks, and ideas to help you learn, grow, and stay motivated.

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