Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk became the first person globally to have a fortune worth more than $300 billion, which now stands at $311 billion. The billionaire, known for backing cryptocurrency and its fan armies, has added $141 billion to his net worth this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The gap between Elon Musk and the world’s second richest person Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stands at $116 billion as the latter's net worth stands at $195 billion currently. Of these $311 billion, $190 billion came from the Tesla US equity, $40.3 billion came from private assets and $6.30 billion came from miscellaneous liabilities.
Meanwhile, Musk threw a challenge at the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) director David Beasley over the weekend. “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk responded to a tweet by a researcher named Dr Eli David. “But it must be open-source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent,” Musk added.
World Food Programme (WFP) Director David Beasley was quick to respond. Beasley claimed that $6 billion will not solve world hunger but can prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and can save 42 million people from the brink of starvation.
Beasley added, “Elon Musk with your help we can bring hope, build stability and change the future. Let’s talk: it isn’t as complicated as Falcon Heavy, but too much at stake to not at least have a conversation. I can be on the next flight to you. Throw me out if you don’t like what you hear!”
Musk then asked the WFP director to make the organisation’s current and proposed spending public so that “people can see exactly where money goes” and ended with “sunlight is a wonderful thing”.
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