Who Is The Richest Person In The World?

In a world seemingly always increasing in wealth, with influencer culture at its peak and everyone striving for that busy ‘hustle’ Instagram lifestyle, everyone wonders who the wealthiest person in the world actually is, and more importantly how they got there! 

According to National World, the richest person on the planet currently is Elon Musk. With a net worth of $219 billion, Musk is the CEO of multiple companies, two of the most established being SpaceX and Tesla. 

Being the wealthiest person comes with great influence on the financial market, and a space where Musk has huge impact is the world of cryptocurrency. In May 2021 he announced that Tesla would no longer accept BTC as a form of payment, consequently reducing the value of Bitcoin from $56,600 to $49,500, according to Coin Desk. His influence over the value of cryptocurrency is known as the ‘Elon Effect’.

Musk made an early fortune in 1999 when he co-founded the online payments company PayPal. The wealthiest man became even wealthier in 2002, gaining $180 million when Ebay bought the company for $1.5 billion. 

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It may have been an easy guess that Musk is not from humble beginnings, he was born into an extremely wealthy family. His mother, Maye Musk was a model and dietician, and his father, Errol Musk was an electromechanical engineer and property developer. Commenting on his childhood and upbringing, Musk once said “we had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe”, according to The Independent.

The 50-year-old has not only gained monetary wealth throughout life, but also has a wealth of knowledge. He attained two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and a Bachelor of Science in Economics. 

Elon’s next business venture is set to be his purchase of the social media network Twitter, which has been proposed to be a $44 billion deal.