
<p><strong>The company will begin offering commercial spaceflights next year, with an eventual goal of multiple flights per day around the world.</strong></p>



<p>n Sunday, Virgin Galactic hit a crucial milestone on its road to make commercial space tourism a reality starting in 2022: sending a fully crewed ship to space that included founder and billionaire Richard Branson. But Branson won’t be leading the charge, as he plans to step back and focus on his charitable foundations. That leaves Michael Colglazier as the “steely-eyed missile man” in charge of the company’s mission.</p>



<p>As CEO of the space tourism company, it’s Colglazier’s job to get ready for paying customers, with shareholders looking over his shoulder to make sure he does. (Not to mention the over 600 people who’ve already bought spaceflight tickets &#8211; some of whom have been holding them for over a decade). His goal is to get the company to the point where it starts opening its doors to taking customers to space starting next year.</p>



<p>Despite the pressure, the former president and managing director of Disney Parks, who took the reins of the space tourism company in July of last year, is upbeat and chipper at the end of this long day that saw the company’s founder get to the stars. Sitting down in New Mexico’s spaceport, which was built by the state for the purpose of facilitating space tourist flights the way airports facilitate airlines, he emphasizes that what Virgin Galatic needs to deliver is more than just a spaceflight, amazing as the singular event is.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Our product, what we give you is a lifelong memory,” Colglazier says. “And so our focus is on the experience so that your emotions are so powerful that the memory is impressed upon you in a way you talk about it your whole life.”</p>



<p>To that end, he explains Virgin Galactic’s ultimate aim is to have spaceports located all over the world, not just New Mexico, which can offer more than just a place to hitch a ride to space, but a place that can “inspire” people to want to make their own journey. “We’ll be collaborating with New Mexico to figure out how to build a broader experience around the spaceport,” he says. “And that’s the product we’ll take to other locales.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Doing that, he says, means operating at a near-daily cadence of spaceflights from every location it operates from, which will require a massive increase in the company’s manufacturing capacity. He estimates that each spaceport his company operates in will need “high single digit to low double digit” numbers of spaceships, along with multiple motherships needed to carry the spacecraft to altitude.</p>



<p>“We’re talking 400 flights a year for every spaceport we operate,” he says. “So we have to build a fleet. How many ships we need is going to depend on how quickly we can turn them around” for future spaceflights, he says. Something the company won’t be sure about until it’s done more tests with its next generation of spacecraft, the first of which has been built and is undergoing testing now.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“You saw the elegance of it, you saw how gracefully it goes,” says Colgrzier of the Unity launch. “It&#8217;s a ballet and it acrobatically moves to purposely give you this amazing view of the planet.”</p></blockquote>



<p>It’s also something that will happen with some competition. In just a few days, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin is sending its founder to space on a test flight, and that company also plans on offering rides to customers. Colglazier says the market right now is way too big to worry about competition. However, he does then point out that Virgin’s experience is quite different from Blue Origin’s, starting with the fact that Virgin’s spacecraft are carried by plane while its competitor will lift customers up on a traditional rocket.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“We take off horizontally, and we believe there&#8217;s great value to that,” he says, describing how Virgin’s carrier planes take its spacecraft to around 45-50,000 feet before releasing them to rocket the rest of the way to space. “And you saw the elegance of it, you saw how gracefully it goes. It&#8217;s a ballet and it acrobatically moves to purposely give you this amazing view of the planet. ”</p>



<p>Getting to the point where the company can offer its “elegant” experience will likely be quite capital intensive. The company announced this morning that it’s selling an additional $500 million in shares. In a report published earlier this year, Morgan Stanley estimated the company likely won’t see positive free cash flow until 2028, though Colglazier dismisses that by saying “there are many financial models out there, and they range a lot because people are missing the data. Today will be a nice proof point of that.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60ec998b6830238503a22689%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Sirisha Bandla looks out the window at Earth while in zero-g."/><figcaption>While on the Unity 22 flight, Virgin Galactic VP Sirisha Bandla also conducted a scientific experiment.&nbsp;<small>VIRGIN GALACTIC</small></figcaption></figure>



<p>Virgin’s got other ways of bringing money in to build out its vision, too. Colglazier says the company intends to open up more spaceflight ticket sales in the summer or fall (it previously stopped offering tickets in 2013). It will also be using its suborbital spaceflights as a platform for scientific research. On Sunday’s flight with Richard Branson, company VP Sirisha Bandla was busy conducting a research experiment for Virgin customer the University of Florida. Research experiments, he says, can bring in around $600,000 per flight.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Ultimately, Colglazier says, his company will spend the next few years focused on building up and scaling out both its customer experiences and its research business, and then tackle other opportunities as they come. “We now have a really interesting organization and company that you would imagine could do other things,” he says. “But we want to make sure we get the economic engine moving first.” </p>



<p><em><strong>By Alex Knapp, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Sir Richard Branson Rings Opening Bell As Virgin Galactic Holdings Joins NYSE

Virgin Galactic CEO Explains What’s Next After Billionaire Richard Branson’s Successful Spaceflight


<p><strong>After promising to sell nearly everything he owned last year including six mansions in California, Tesla’s billionaire CEO has taken up residence in a studio-apartment sized rental – here’s what it looks like inside and out.</strong></p>



<p>If you’re looking for the world’s third-richest person, you won’t find him living among the billionaires. After selling off most of his real estate assets and moving to Texas in the past year, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a> in early June that he now only owns one house (in the Bay Area)—and that his primary residence is a tiny box house that he says he rents from his rocket company, SpaceX. </p>



<p>The house, which is around 400 square feet, is located in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX produces its Starships. Musk, who has a net worth of $169.8 billion according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, rents a “<a href="https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foldable, prefabricated home</a>” made by Boxabl, a housing startup company. The house, which Musk tweeted sells for about $50,000, typically has a setup akin to a small studio apartment: One large room partitioned into a living room area, bedroom area, kitchen and bathroom. In contrast to many other billionaires who own lavish mansions, Musk lives in an easily transportable 20&#215;20 foot unit.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It’s kinda awesome though,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> on Twitter last month.</p>



<p>The 50-year-old mogul&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239554148724737?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first announced</a>&nbsp;plans to sell all of his homes and most of his possessions last year, in response to criticism of his massive wealth. Musk has now nearly made good on his promise to do so,selling six of his seven properties.</p>



<p>“Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen someday,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;on Twitter last month.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A few days later, he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1404336639938154497?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>&nbsp;he had put it up for sale: “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”</p>



<p>The 47-acre property is located in Hillsborough, California—around halfway between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The “over 100-year-old mansion” is a 16,000 square foot house that boasts nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms. It’s the last piece of real estate that Musk owns: He has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/891-Crystal-Springs-Rd_Hillsborough_CA_94010_M24423-37895" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed</a>&nbsp;it on the market for $37.5 million, having originally bought it for $23.4 million in 2017.</p>



<p>Musk has offloaded his Los Angeles real estate in the past year, often at slim profit margins—if any. He&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/article/elon-musks-houses-homes-sold/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>&nbsp;his first mansion, located on Chalon Road, for $29 million in June 2020; he had purchased it for $17 million in 2012.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In October, he sold a 2,700 square foot ranch-style house that used to belong to Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder for $7 million (Musk bought it for $6.75 million in 2013), with the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256255619239038977?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stipulation</a>&nbsp;that the house “cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>In December, Musk sold&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-12-30/elon-musk-sells-three-bel-air-homes-for-a-combined-40-9-million" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">four Bel Air properties</a>&nbsp;for a combined $61.89 million; He originally spent nearly $55 million on those properties, purchasing them between 2015 and 2019. Overall, Musk has made an estimated profit of $19.2 million on his six home sales over the past year.</p>



<p>Musk’s offloading of real estate comes after a battle with the state of California. The billionaire criticized the state’s coronavirus-related restrictions on operations at the Tesla factory in the Bay Area last year—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/05/20/tesla-drops-lawsuit-against-alameda-county-over-factory-reopening/?sh=766e1f59c1bf">leading to a lawsuit</a> that Tesla later dropped—and also claimed that the state takes entrepreneurs for granted. In early December 2020, Musk <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=421191e44948">confirmed</a> that he was moving to Texas, citing the fact that two of his biggest projects—Tesla’s new factory and a SpaceX facility-are located there.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Starbase, Texas <a href="https://t.co/mt4IpqqmjF">pic.twitter.com/mt4IpqqmjF</a></p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1368915472142401540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>It remains unclear whether Musk is renting any other houses in Austin, though. It’s also unknown if he stays with his girlfriend, 32-year-old singer Grimes (who&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1362064129377394694?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lives</a>&nbsp;in Austin) and their 10-month-old child, X AE A-XII. Musk has five other children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, but it’s unclear where they live.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df37ed215a75b9afaa4e5b%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Musk Somera II by Fererico Winer for Forbes"/><figcaption>Somera Street Elon&#8217;s Homes from left to right 954 958 955&nbsp;<small>FEDERICO WINER FOR FORBES</small></figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-954-somera-rd-los-angeles">954 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-29-719-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $29,719,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-september-30-2016-for-24-250-000"><strong>Purchased September 30, 2016 for $24,250,000</strong></h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-955-somera-rd-los-angeles">955 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-4-443-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $4,443,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-july-10-2015-for-4-300-000"><strong>Purchased July 10, 2015 for $4,300,000</strong></h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-958-somera-rd-los-angeles">958 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-6-774-500">Sold December 22, 2020 for $6,774,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-january-15-2019-for-6-400-000"><strong>Purchased January 15, 2019 for $6,400,000</strong></h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>10947 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</strong></h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Sold December 21, 2020 for&nbsp;</strong>$20,948,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Purchased July 28, 2015 for $20,000,000</strong></h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>10930 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</strong></h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold October 8, 2020 for $7,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Purchased October 24, 2013 for $6,750,000</strong></h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10911 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df2aafbd04bc615f446fdb%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="10911 Chalon Rd by Dylan Stewart-Newscom"/></figure>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold June 12, 2020 for $29,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Purchased December 21, 2012 for $17,000,000</strong> </h5>



<p><strong><em>By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

Where Elon Musk Lives Since He Pledged To Ditch ‘Almost All Physical Possessions’


<p>MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist and ex-spouse of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, announced a new round of donations Tuesday, totaling some $2.7 billion to 286 organizations around the U.S. She detailed her thought process and the list of recipients in a&nbsp;<a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/seeding-by-ceding-ea6de642bf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medium blog post</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Sitting down to write this post, I felt stuck,” Scott writes. “I want to de-emphasize privileged voices and cede focus to others, yet I know some media stories will focus on wealth.” (Duly noted by us here at&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>.) By&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mackenzie-scott/?sh=b4d7725243d0">our estimate</a>, Scott’s fortune—after distributing the latest gifts—stands at $57 billion as of 10:30 am ET, which makes her the 22nd richest person in the world.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Scott says she wished she could have titled her post “286 Teams Empowering Voices the World Needs to Hear,” because she and her team are “attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change.” With that, Scott jumps into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/opinion/warren-buffett-billionaire-taxes.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">billionaire debate</a>&nbsp;that’s long simmered amid recent explosive reporting by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ProPublica</a>&nbsp;revealing that the world’s richest—including her ex-husband—pay very little in taxes relative to their wealth.</p>



<p>“We are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others,” Scott writes. She says she focused her latest donations on higher education, groups bridging divides through interfaith support, arts and culture, anti-poverty organizations led by people of color and grassroots groups supporting local communities.</p>



<p>Scott didn&#8217;t disclose the specific dollar amount of each grant she made. But she did say that in total, she dispersed $2.739 billion. If the grants are equal in size, that means each of the 268 organizations received about $10 million. One recipient, the Children’s Defense Fund,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.childrensdefense.org/2021/childrens-defense-fund-receives-20-million-from-mackenzie-scott-and-dan-jewett/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">says</a>&nbsp;they received $20 million, “the largest single contribution” in its history. Global health organization&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2018/03/12/backed-by-a-band-of-philanthropists-nonprofit-makes-dramatic-progress-in-reducing-childhood-deaths/?sh=36a9069a237e">Muso</a>&nbsp;received $15 million, likewise its largest donation to date, according to a press release. The BOMA Project, which aims to end poverty in rural Africa, received&nbsp;<a href="https://bomaproject.org/2021/06/15/philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-donates-10m-to-the-boma-project/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$10 million</a>.</p>



<p>Fascinating, though, are Scott’s donations to groups that enable philanthropic giving or aid. Like Kiva, which makes microloans. Or Give Directly, which gives cash to the very poor in African countries. Another recipient, the National Council of Nonprofits, told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;their unrestricted grant will help their work supporting tens of thousands of nonprofits across the country. “Grateful for the tremendous trust that MacKenzie and Dan [Jewett, her husband] have in our work does not even begin to describe how we are feeling today,” CEO and president Tim Delaney says.</p>



<p>In keeping with Scott’s stated belief of ceding control of money for the best results in disseminating wealth, she gave to the Decolonizing Wealth Project, which redistributes wealth to Black, Indigenous and other philanthropic initiatives led by people of color. A gift was also made to Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that rehabilitates former gang members and helps them become contributing members of society.</p>



<p>Among Scott’s education recipients is DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that lets teachers crowdfund for their classrooms. Founder Charles Best told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;that Scott’s gift was “overwhelming,” and said her Tuesday blog post “will surely be cited as one of the most powerful philanthropic manifestos ever written.” Scott also donated to numerous colleges and universities.</p>



<p>Another recipient, Faith in Action, told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;they look forward to using their multi-million donation “toward continued investments in Black and Brown communities” as part of their mission to help people of religious faith work towards more just and equitable societies. “This gift is transformative for Faith in Action,” executive director, the Reverend Alvin Herring, says. “As we center the leadership of everyday folks who aren’t looking for the limelight, we are grateful to Ms. Scott for investing in organizations led by people directly impacted by the issues we care so deeply about.”</p>



<p>Arts organizations receiving funds include the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the L.A. Arts Endowment Fund, among others.</p>



<p>Tuesday marks Scott’s third major round of donations. By&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>’ estimate, she gave away&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2021/04/06/how-mackenzie-scott-gave-away-nearly-6-billion-last-year-and-ended-up-richer/?sh=4a551b4068cc">nearly $6 billion</a>&nbsp;in 2020 to 500 organizations. Scott is also a&nbsp;<a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">signee</a>&nbsp;of the Giving Pledge, promising to give away half of her fortune to charitable causes during her lifetime, or after her death.</p>


Axel Springer award ceremony

MacKenzie Scott Just Gave Away Another $2.7 Billion


<p>Sweden-based Klarna is Europe’s biggest privately held fintech company with 4,000 employees and a $31 billion valuation, pumped up by investors like Softbank, General Atlantic and BlackRock. The company has become elephantine in such a short time by offering customers the ability to make purchases and pay later, making money by charging merchants to utilize Klarna’s payment technology. Today Klarna names a new investor: rapper, designer and producer A$AP Rocky.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It’s a radical way to approach the crediting system,” says Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers), 32. “It helps people with financial literacy.”</p>



<p>In addition to the company’s tremendous growth, Rocky was motivated to invest in Klarna from his own experiences growing up in Harlem. He notes the difficulties making payments, especially on student loans with interest, for people from low-income backgrounds. “You’re setting yourself up for financial debt,” he says. “There’s no system that helps us deal with things when it comes to student loans, the IRS, banking or credit.” He describes Klarna as a “layaway plan” at a global scale.</p>



<p>This is a new chapter in the “funny history” (Rocky’s words) between the performer and Sweden. In August of 2019,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/08/14/aap-rocky-found-guilty-of-assault-handed-suspended-sentence-over-stockholm-brawl/?sh=24f16c994ebf">Rocky was released</a>&nbsp;back to the United States after the country held him in pretrial detention—on an assault charge—after a post-concert fight in Stockholm. Rocky’s cause sparked international outrage, fueled in-part by then-President Donald Trump, who lashed out on Twitter to advocate for the rapper’s release and return to the U.S.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Now, reclaiming his relationship with Sweden as an investor in one of the country’s most significant companies, Rocky (who starred on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2016/02/09/aap-rockys-sequel-a-cash-prince-aims-for-the-fashion-crown/?sh=4c5f206a6052">2016&nbsp;<em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>30 Under 30 cover</a>) will curate upcycled and vintage fashion experiences in the Klarna smartphone app.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For Klarna’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/sebastian-siemiatkowski/?sh=599119366e25">billionaire CEO and cofounder Sebastian Siemiatkowski</a>, bringing Rocky to his cap table is a strategic brand move. Klarna prides itself on being the anti-bank bank: its color is bubblegum pink and it rans ads in major cities with investor Snoop Dogg surrounded by Afghan Hounds. “We’re a very diverse group of people with over 50 nationalities represented, speaking multiple languages that have a very different approach to business,” says Siemiatkowski. “We wanted our brand to represent that—to represent approachability and availability. We also did want to add a portion of fun to it.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>The company’s trajectory has been anything but relaxed. Making the bulk of its revenue from charging merchant fees between 3 and 7%, revenue grew 37% from 2019 to 2020 to $1.2 billion. Klarna has over 90 million active users around the world who make an average of 2 million transactions per day with over 250,000 merchants like Nike, Amazon and Sephora.</p>



<p></p>



<p>Buy now, pay later, however, has led to backlash by critics who say Klarna encourages overspending. “A decade on from the financial crisis, a new generation—some of whom were barely out of primary school during the last credit crunch—is being courted by new types of lenders who are rewriting the language of debt for the Instagram era,” said the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8c751ac6-bb63-11e8-94b2-17176fbf93f5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Financial Times</em></a>&nbsp;in 2018 of Klarna.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The company insists it’s an antidote to the credit system. A representative for Klarna says: “Each new transaction is evaluated before it gets approved, and we have limits in place on how much shoppers can spend when using our services. Every time a customer makes a transaction using Klarna, we reassess their ability to repay and evaluate if the payment option they wish to use is suitable for them at that time.” They also note that customers are banned from using Klarna until their outstanding balance has been paid. The company also rarely charges interest to customers, unlike creditors.</p>



<p>For all these reasons, Rocky believes Klarna is his best investment yet. “I’m really hands-on involved,” says Rocky. “It’s a no-brainer.”</p>



<p><strong><em>By Alexandra Sternlicht, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


2019 Rolling Loud LA

A$AP Rocky Becomes The Latest Investor In $31 Billion Fintech Platform Klarna


<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?sh=28bb8a6a1b23">Jeff Bezos</a>&nbsp;didn’t have to wait long to reclaim his throne as the richest person in the world: A few hours after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2021/05/24/bernard-arnault-becomes-worlds-richest-person-as-lvmh-stock-rises/?sh=355a97ab2ad9">losing</a>&nbsp;the title to French luxury fashion magnate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?sh=23d080666fa4">Bernard Arnault</a>, he’s now back at No. 1 after Amazon’s shares ticked up when markets opened in New York. As of 1:30 pm ET, Bezos leads with a fortune of $188.4 billion, ahead of Arnault’s $187.3 billion.</p>



<p>The two men entered the weekend on level terms, worth $186 billion each, after shares in Arnault’s&nbsp; luxury goods conglomerate LVMH rallied in the second half of last week. LVMH stock performed even better on Monday, closing nearly 1% higher and boosting Arnault’s fortune by $1.7 billion—enough for him to briefly eclipse Bezos and become the world’s richest person for a few hours. Then Amazon shares ticked up more than 1% as of 1:30 pm ET on Monday, making Bezos $2.4 billion richer today.</p>



<p>Arnault has briefly ranked as the world’s richest person several times already: Just before the markets closed on Friday in the U.S., Arnault was about $100 million&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/05/21/french-luxury-tycoon-bernard-arnault-is-now-tied-with-jeff-bezos-for-richest-person-in-the-world/?sh=364d38d42b91">richer</a>&nbsp;than Bezos, before ending the day with the same net worth. At around 10:30 am ET on December 16, 2019, Arnault&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2019/12/16/french-billionaire-bernard-arnault-was-briefly-the-worlds-richest-person-today/?sh=43b1d3ad7ce1">pushed</a>&nbsp;past Bezos to claim No. 1 for the first time, until Amazon shares closed higher and Arnault fell back to number two.</p>



<p>While Bezos is now trading the top spot with Arnault, he was previously locked into a tight competition with Tesla CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=5a9c30fe7999">Elon Musk</a>, currently the third richest person in the world with a net worth of $150.8 billion. In early January, Musk overtook Bezos to become the richest on three separate occasions—on January 8, 12 and 14—before the Amazon founder definitively clawed his way back on January 15.</p>



<p>All three men have seen spectacular growth in their net worths throughout the pandemic, collectively gaining more than $300 billion. Since <em>Forbes</em> calculated net worths for its 2020 World’s Billionaires list at the worst of the market crash in March 2020, Bezos has gotten more than $75 billion richer, compared to gains of nearly $127 billion for Musk and $111 billion for Arnault. Bezos’ net worth peaked at a staggering $200 billion on two occasions: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/08/26/worlds-richest-billionaire-jeff-bezos-first-200-billion/?sh=495faf434db7">first</a> in August 2020 and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/04/28/jeff-bezos-is-once-again-worth-a-staggering-200-billion/?sh=287e3af24b4e">again</a> late last month in April 2021.</p>



<p><em><strong>By Giacomo Tognini, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Jeff Bezos’s India Visit Marked By Probe and Protests

After Briefly Dropping To No. 2, Jeff Bezos Is Again The Richest Person In The World


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong>&nbsp;Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed he has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/05/09/elon-musk-reveals-he-has-aspergers-on-saturday-night-live/?sh=6832e336f640">Asperger’s syndrome&nbsp;</a>during his opening monologue while hosting Saturday Night Live, but is far from the first billionaire businessman to divulge he is neurodivergent.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p>Fellow billionaire and investment management firm founder Bill Gross revealed in 2019 he too had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-03-01/bill-gross-on-his-asperger-s-diagnosis-and-its-advantages-video?fbclid=IwAR1H-gbsnDylCQB2hPCnkaQt15MQqS71DtsQMBU2O_jHjpUWqm3HUX_xlLE&amp;sref=q1G25G4a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diagnosed with Asperger’s</a>, telling Bloomberg he believes the condition makes him a better investor: “It allows you to focus on longer-term things without getting mixed up in the details,” Gross said.</p>



<p>Gross, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to be worth about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gross/?sh=6d33e30235b9">$1.5 billion</a>, also said the diagnosis likely explains his trouble maintaining eye contact and his almost obsessive interest in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-07/bond-guru-bill-gross-to-sell-42-2-million-stamp-collection" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">collecting stamps</a>.</p>



<p>Richard Branson, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to have a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/?sh=5a09c9836ff5">$4.2 billion</a>&nbsp;fortune, opened up about being dyslexic in a 2018 blog post, writing that as a child he was labeled “<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/my-top-three-strategies-dyslexic-children" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lazy and dumb</a>” for struggling in school: “Dyslexia is just a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/my-top-three-strategies-dyslexic-children" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">different, creative way of thinking</a>,” Branson said, adding he thinks the condition makes him&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/dyslexia-and-imagination" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more imaginative</a>.</p>



<p>Charles Schwab, who founded the nation’s largest brokerage firm and has an estimated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-schwab/?sh=71652fdc2e4b">$11.4 billion</a>&nbsp;fortune, has also had lifelong troubles&nbsp;<a href="https://stanfordmag.org/contents/charles-schwab-s-secret-struggle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reading and writing</a>&nbsp;because of dyslexia.</p>



<p>Late Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to be worth as much as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maxjedeurpalmgren/2018/01/28/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea-dead-at-91/?sh=6e3f452c4972">$28 billion</a>&nbsp;between 2005 and 2010, was dyslexic and even decided to give Ikea products their&nbsp;<a href="https://qz.com/1191091/ingvar-kamprad-and-his-ikea-empire-nine-intriguing-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">distinct Swedish names</a>&nbsp;because his diagnosis made working with typical inventory numbers difficult for him.</p>



<p><em>By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Key Speakers At The Satellite 2020 Conference

It’s Not Just Elon Musk — These Billionaires Are Also Neurodivergent


<p>The man Warren Buffett expects to succeed him at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway is worth an estimated $484 million thanks to a stake in its privately held energy subsidiary, despite owning very little of Berkshire’s publicly traded stock.</p>



<p>At Berkshire’s annual meeting on Saturday, Buffett’s longtime lieutenant Charles Munger made an off-handed comment that “Greg will keep the culture” as Berkshire grows more decentralized, suggesting that the company’s vice chairman, Greg Abel, will succeed Buffett as CEO. Buffett later confirmed to CNBC that Abel is the current choice to take over, saying, “The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning.”</p>



<p>Abel has been a leader at Berkshire since the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate bought MidAmerican Energy in 2000 when he was its president. He became CEO of the company now named Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 2008 and served in that role until becoming Berkshire’s vice chairman in 2018.</p>



<p>Abel owns a 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy, billionaire Walter Scott owns 7.9% and Berkshire Hathaway owns the remaining 91.1% of the company, according to BHE’s 2020 annual report. Berkshire repurchased $126 million worth of shares from Scott on March 5, 2020, according to its latest proxy statement, valuing BHE at $53.4 billion. That makes Abel’s stake worth an estimated $480 million (Forbes discounts ownership stakes in privately held companies).</p>



<p>Abel’s piece of BHE makes up the vast majority of his net worth, Forbes estimates. He owns only five Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares in a trust and 2,363 Class B shares as a custodian for members of his family, according to the proxy statement. With Class A shares worth more than $400,000 per share and Class B shares trading at $280 for share as of Monday’s market close, that stake is worth about $2.8 million.</p>



<p>Abel and Ajit Jain were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2018/01/10/warren-buffett-adds-energy-head-greg-abel-and-insurance-maestro-ajit-jain-to-berkshires-board/?sh=5355b5717c73">named vice chairmen</a>&nbsp;at the same time in 2018, prompting speculation that both were in contention to move into the top job. Jain, a 35-year Berkshire veteran, manages its insurance operations, and Abel oversees everything else. Jain owns $185 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares, some of which are held by a private foundation. Abel, 58, is 11 years younger than Jain, which Buffett reportedly cited as a contributing factor to the decision. “They’re both wonderful guys. The likelihood of someone having a 20-year runway though makes a real difference,” Buffett told CNBC.</p>



<p>Although he is among the youngest members of Berkshire’s board of directors, Abel’s stake in the public company still stands out as strikingly small. Buffett’s 248,734 Class A shares make up the bulk of the Oracle of Omaha’s $106 billion fortune. Munger’s shares are worth $1.9 billion, and early investor David Gottesman owns a $2.6 billion stake. All but two others on Berkshire’s 14-member board have stakes worth much more than Abel’s. A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.</p>



<p>But as an added bonus to his lucrative Berkshire Hathaway Energy stake, Abel is paid handsomely in his role as vice chairman. His base salary was $16 million in each of the last three years, according to Berkshire’s proxy statement, and he received $3 million bonuses in 2020 and 2019 and a $2 million bonus in 2018. Buffett and Munger’s base salaries are a mere $100,000 annually.</p>



<p>Abel also serves on the board of Kraft Heinz and owns 40,036 shares individually, worth about $1.7 million. Berkshire Hathaway orchestrated the 2015 megamerger of Kraft and Heinz after buying both food companies with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital and is Kraft Heinz’s largest shareholder with a 26.6% stake.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Inside The Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Annual General Meeting

Just How Rich Is Warren Buffett Successor Greg Abel?


<p>Bill Gates, the co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, has announced on Twitter moments ago that he and his wife of 27 years, philanthropist and businesswoman Melinda Gates, have made a decision to end their marriage &#8220;after a great deal of thought and a lot of work&#8221; on their relationship.</p>



<p>In a combined statement, they added: &#8220;Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.&#8221;</p>



<p>The Gates&#8217; chair the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, the world&#8217;s largest private charitable foundation. In mid-March 2020, Gates stepped down as a board member of Microsoft, the software firm he founded with Paul Allen (d. 2018) in 1975.</p>



<p>Among the world&#8217;s richest people, Bill Gates is ranked number 4 on <em>Forbes </em>world billionaires list with a real time net worth of $130.5 billion.</p>



<p>  </p>


French President Receives Bill Gates, the co-Founder of the Microsoft Company At Elysee Palace

Bill And Melinda Gates End 27-Year Marriage


<p>On Thursday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Tanzanian businessman and MeTL Group Chief Executive Mohammed Dewji as one of his advisors on investment issues. Dewji will sit on the investment advisory council for a period of three years.&nbsp;</p>



<p>MeTL, one of Tanzania&#8217;s largest companies, provides logistic services and is active in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils in eastern, southern and central Africa, and aims to expand in more African markets.</p>



<p>As per a statement released by MeTL, Dewji will be responsible for the development and implementation of strategies and programs to attract and retain domestic and foreign direct investment to South Africa.<br><br>“The appointment takes into consideration the role that Mo Dewji has played through his investments in a number of countries in Africa where his companies have created a lot of jobs,” reads the statement.<br><br>Dewji, better known as &#8216;Mo&#8217;, who has been MeTL CEO for over two decades now, told FORBES AFRICA that he is both honored and humbled to accept Ramaphosa&#8217;s appointment on the advisory council in South Africa.</p>



<p>“As the second-largest economy on the continent, South Africa has impressive industrial, geographic and technological potential. I look forward to joining economic experts from across the continent as we work to strengthen South Africa’s investment environment and spur economic development across the region,” he said.&nbsp;&#8220;I will share insights on investment challenges and solutions to help guide South Africa&#8217;s indigenous business sector.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Dewji&#8217;s estimated net worth is $1.6 billion, according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, and he is Africa&#8217;s youngest billionaire.&nbsp;</p>


TANZANIA-KENYA-KIDNAPPING

Tanzanian Billionaire To Share Insights With South Africa On Investment


<p><strong>With KKW Beauty and popular shapewear firm Skims, Kardashian West’s net worth increases to $1 billion, earning her a spot on <em>Forbes</em>’ World’s Billionaires List.</strong></p>



<p>When Kim Kardashian West was first mentioned in the pages of&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;in 2011, it was simply a tally of her Twitter followers: 6.6 million, just below Barack Obama and just above Ashton Kutcher. Five years later, she graced the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2016/07/11/kim-kardashian-mobile-mogul-the-forbes-cover-story/?sh=4d20a0467e4f">cover</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;thanks to her booming mobile game, which helped her earn $51 million that year. Now, she officially joins the World’s Billionaires list for the first time.</p>



<p><em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>estimates that Kardashian West is now worth $1 billion, up from $780 million in October, thanks to two lucrative businesses—KKW Beauty and Skims—as well as cash from reality television and endorsement deals, and a number of smaller investments.</p>



<p>Kardashian West founded KKW Beauty in 2017, following the success of her half-sister Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics. She borrowed from Kylie’s playbook, using a similar direct-to-consumer model that relies heavily on social media marketing. Her first launch, 300,000 contour kits,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/07/11/why-kim-kardashian-west-is-worth-350-million/?sh=6a87c5004f7b">sold out within two hours</a>. By 2018, the business had expanded into eyeshadows, concealers, lipsticks and fragrances, and was bringing in about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/07/11/why-kim-kardashian-west-is-worth-350-million/?sh=6a87c5004f7b">$100 million in revenue.</a></p>



<p>&#8220;It’s the first time I&#8217;ve moved away from having licensing deals and transitioned into being an owner,&#8221; Kardashian West told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2017/06/13/how-kim-kardashian-west-bounced-back-to-45-5-million-and-a-new-cosmetics-company/?sh=6b6453f68f59"><em>Forbes</em></a>&nbsp;in 2017, when she announced her cosmetics line.</p>



<p>She cashed in on that ownership last year when she sold 20% of KKW Beauty to cosmetics conglomerate Coty for $200 million, a deal that valued the company at $1 billion. While <em>Forbes</em> estimates that figure is a little bloated—Coty, which also bought 51% of Kylie Cosmetics in 2020, is known for overpaying—her remaining 72% stake is still worth about $500 million, by our count.</p>



<p>Then there’s Skims, the shapewear line Kardashian West launched in 2019. She raised money from fashion insiders like Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massane and Theory’s Andrew Rosen, and capitalized on her massive social media following to shill the brand. (She now has 69.6 million Twitter followers and 213 million followers on Instagram.) Skims has been quick on its feet: During the pandemic, when consumers became more interested in comfy clothes for the couch than in smoothing their stomachs under evening gowns, she swiftly started turning the focus to loungewear.</p>



<p>Kardashian West owns a majority stake in closely-held Skims, which hasn’t disclosed its revenues. A source familiar with Skims told <em>Forbes </em>about a transaction that values the shapewear company north of $500 million. As a result, <em>Forbes</em> estimates her Skims stake is worth a conservative $225 million, enough to lift her fortune to $1 billion.</p>



<p>The rest of Kardashian West’s fortune sits in cash and investments, including real estate. Every year since 2012, she has earned at least $10 million pretax, by&nbsp;<em>Forbes’</em>&nbsp;count, thanks to paychecks from&nbsp;<em>Keeping Up With the Kardashians,&nbsp;</em>endorsement deals and endeavors like the aforementioned mobile game and her now-defunct Kimoji app. She’s also got three properties in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles, and a portfolio of blue-chip investments, including shares of Disney, Amazon, Netflix and Adidas that her soon-to-be ex-husband Kanye West gifted her for Christmas in 2017.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But it’s the companies that she has launched herself, and grown with the typical Kardashian flare for self-promotion, that land her on the World’s Billionaires list. As she tweeted the day she made the cover of <em>Forbes</em>, mocking the criticism she’s received for years: “Not bad for a girl with no talent.”</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/">Madeline Berg</a>Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones – Arrivals

Kim Kardashian West Is Officially A Billionaire


<p><strong>Despite the pandemic, it was a record-setting year for the world’s wealthiest—with a $5 trillion surge in wealth and an unprecedented number of new billionaires.</strong></p>



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<p class="has-drop-cap">It’s been a year like no other, and we aren’t talking about the pandemic. There were rapid-fire public offerings, surging cryptocurrencies and skyrocketing stock prices. The number of billionaires on&nbsp;<em>Forbes’</em>&nbsp;35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented&nbsp;<strong>2,755</strong>—660 more than a year ago. Altogether they are worth&nbsp;<strong>$13.1 trillion</strong>, up from $8 trillion on the 2020 list.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are a record high&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/04/06/nearly-500-people-have-become-billionaires-during-the-pandemic-year/?sh=386c528125c0"><strong>493 newcomers</strong></a>&nbsp;to the list—roughly one new billionaire every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong and 98 from the U.S. The richest newcomer, at $38.2 billion, is&nbsp;<strong>Miriam Adelson</strong>&nbsp;of Nevada, who inherited her husband Sheldon Adelson’s casino empire following his death in January. Other notable new entrants include movie and TV producer&nbsp;<strong>Tyler Perry</strong>, Bumble dating app cofounder&nbsp;<strong>Whitney Wolfe Herd</strong>—the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, and Europe’s&nbsp;<strong>Guillaume Pousaz</strong>, founder of payments firm Checkout.com. Another 250 people who’d fallen off the billionaires’ list in the past came roaring back. Altogether, a staggering 86% of all billionaires are richer than a year ago.https://embedly.forbes.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F203c82a4-0962-4ff3-b2f9-883366e688b1%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;display_name=Infogram&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2Fdesktop-2021-billionaires-recirc-1ho16vojl5w8x4n&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fd1c81d9b-cd07-4ed9-ae1f-456751923c71.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram</p>



<p><strong>Jeff Bezos</strong>&nbsp;is the world’s richest person for the fourth year running, worth $177 billion, up $64 billion from a year ago as a result of surging Amazon shares.&nbsp;<strong>Elon Musk</strong>—the biggest gainer in dollar terms—rocketed into the No. 2 spot with a $151 billion fortune, a whopping $126.4 billion more than a year ago, when he ranked No. 31 and was worth $24.6 billion. The main reason: a 705% climb in Tesla shares. French luxury goods tycoon&nbsp;<strong>Bernard Arnault</strong>&nbsp;holds onto his spot at No. 3 but his fortune nearly doubled to $150 billion, from $76 billion, due to an 86% rise in the shares of LVMH, owner of brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior and cosmetics retailer Sephora.&nbsp;<strong>The top ten richest are worth $1.15 trillion, up by two-thirds from $686 billion last year</strong>. Altogether,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2021/04/06/europes-billionaires-are-1-trillion-richer-than-a-year-ago/?sh=623d979f76e5">Europe’s billionaires</a>&nbsp;are $1 trillion richer than a year ago.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-net-worth-of-the-world-s-richest-person"><strong>Net Worth of the World’s Richest Person</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b6013b0a2afc5b16302b6/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Richest person net worth"/></figure>



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<p>This year there are four people worth $100 billion or more—up from just one (Bezos) on last year’s list. Besides Bezos, Musk and Arnault, there’s&nbsp;<strong>Bill Gates</strong>, who ranks No. 4 at $124 billion, buoyed by the strength of shares he owns in Microsoft, Canadian National Railway and tractor maker Deere &amp; Company.</p>



<p>Rounding out the top five is Facebook founder&nbsp;<strong>Mark Zuckerberg</strong>, at $97 billion. He’s worth an eye-popping $42.3 billion more than a year ago; Facebook’s shares have risen 80% in the past year as people around the world used its social media platforms to stay in touch. (For more on the richest tech billionaires, see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/04/06/here-are-the-richest-tech-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=691f42bb4d70">here</a>; and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mominakhan/2021/04/06/the-10-richest-american-billionaires-2021/?sh=7e747aa4d981">here</a>&nbsp;for the richest Americans.) The richest woman this year is cosmetics heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France; see here for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2021/04/06/the-top-richest-women-in-the-world-in-2021/?sh=59cfe7094598">richest women</a>.</p>



<p><strong>Warren Buffett&nbsp;</strong>is the world’s sixth richest person, worth $96 billion. It’s the first year since 1993 that the revered investor running Berkshire Hathaway has not appeared in the top five. Not that the 90-year-old Oracle of Omaha had a bad year—he’s still worth $28.5 billion more than he was on the 2020 list.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-number-of-billionaires-worldwide-and-combined-net-worth"><strong>Number of Billionaires Worldwide and Combined Net Worth</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b5e244876c7b64f423816/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Number of Billionaires and combined net worth"/><figcaption>Forbs.com</figcaption></figure>



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<p>The<strong>&nbsp;U.S.</strong>&nbsp;still has more billionaires than any other country, with 724 (up from 614 last year), but China is closing the gap with 698 (including 71 from&nbsp;<strong>Hong Kong</strong>&nbsp;and 1 from&nbsp;<strong>Macao</strong>). Last year the U.S. had 614 billionaires and China had 456 (including 66 from Hong Kong and 1 Macao).&nbsp;<strong>India</strong>&nbsp;has the third highest number of billionaires, with 140. Altogether, the 1,149 billionaires from Asia-Pacific countries are worth $4.7 trillion, while the U.S. billionaires are worth a total $4.4 trillion.&nbsp; (For more on the countries with the most billionaires, see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/04/06/the-countries-with-the-most-billionaires-2021/?sh=42c017c0379b">here</a>. Plus&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2021/04/06/the-10-richest-chinese-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=7e5164685ca2">China’s richest</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2021/04/06/asia-ascendant-the-richest-new-chinese-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=3361ff131a1a">China’s newcomers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2021/04/06/indias-10-richest-billionaires-2021/?sh=2922cf8359b7">India’s richest</a>.)&nbsp;</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-countries-with-the-most-billionaires"><strong>The Countries With The Most Billionaires</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b7cca1391bb569e6302b6/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Countries With The Most Billionaires"/><figcaption>Forbes.com</figcaption></figure>



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<p>A record 1,975 billionaires are self-made, up from 1,457 last year. That equates to 72% of the list (vs. about 70% in 2020). It’s a marked change from the 2001 list of billionaires, when 49% of the total 565 billionaires were self-made.&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;uses the term “self-made” as a contrast to “inherited” and “inherited &amp; growing;” it’s not meant to indicate that someone created a billion-dollar fortune all on their own. To achieve such a feat takes teamwork.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-total-number-of-billionaires-and-self-made-status"><strong>Total Number of Billionaires and Self-Made Status</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606c413115a36070b1428bf7/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Self-Made Status"/><figcaption>Forbes .com</figcaption></figure>



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<p>One hundred and five of the list members are under 40, two-thirds of whom are self-made. The new youngest self-made billionaire is 26-year-old American&nbsp;<strong>Austin Russell,</strong>&nbsp;who dropped out of Stanford to found automotive sensor firm Luminar Technologies; he is worth $2.4 billion and ranked No. 1299. There’s a new youngest billionaire as well: 18-year-old&nbsp;<strong>Kevin David Lehmann</strong>&nbsp;of Germany, whose father Guenther Lehmann transferred his stake in drugstore chain dm-drogerie mkt to him; he’s worth $3.3 billion and ranks No. 925. (Read more about the youngest billionaires&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2021/04/06/the-worlds-youngest-billionaires-2021-include-a-teenager-from-germany-a-crytpo-magnate-and-a-stanford-dropout/?sh=5e87182a509d">here</a>.). At the other end of the spectrum,&nbsp;the oldest billionaire, at age 99, is U.S. insurance tycoon&nbsp;<strong>George Joseph</strong>.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Mukesh Ambani</strong>&nbsp;of India has become the richest person in Asia, ranked No. 10 and worth an estimated $84.5 billion. He nudges out&nbsp;<strong>Jack Ma</strong>&nbsp;of China, Asia’s richest person a year ago, whose rank dropped to No. 26 (from No. 17 last year) despite a nearly $10 billion jump in his fortune to $48.4 billion. The biggest gainer in percentage terms this year is from China:&nbsp;<strong>Zhong Shanshan</strong>&nbsp;took his bottled water company Nongfu Spring public last fall on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and shares soared, lifting his net worth to $68.9 billion, up 3,345% from $2 billion a year ago.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-total-new-billionaires-and-combined-net-worth"><strong>Total New Billionaires and Combined Net Worth</strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b5ea2affa9dd12fb89021/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Total Newcomers over the years"/><figcaption>Forbes.com</figcaption></figure>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#1 | Jeff Bezos</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$177 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>AMAZON</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE: <strong>SEATTLE</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#2 | Elon Musk</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$151 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>TESLA, SPACEX</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE: <strong>AUSTIN, TEXAS</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#3 | Bernard Arnault</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$150 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>LUXURY GOODS</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>PARIS</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#4 | Bill Gates</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$124 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>MICROSOFT</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>MEDINA, WASHINGTON</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#5 | Mark Zuckerberg</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$97 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>FACEBOOK</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#6 | Warren Buffett</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$96 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>OMAHA, NEBRASKA</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#7 | Larry Ellison</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$93 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>SOFTWARE</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>LANAI, HAWAII</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#8 | Larry Page</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$91.5 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>GOOGLE</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#9 | Sergey Brin</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$89 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>GOOGLE</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA</strong></h4>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>#10 | Mukesh Ambani</strong></h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NET WORTH:&nbsp;<strong>$84.5 BILLION</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;<strong>DIVERSIFIED</strong></h4>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RESIDENCE:&nbsp;<strong>MUMBAI, INDIA</strong></h4>



<p><em><strong>By Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Forbes’ 35th Annual World’s Billionaires List: Facts And Figures 2021


<p>When Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo announced on Wednesday that it had reached 788.4 million active users, surpassing Alibaba’s 779 million and Amazon’s 300 million, its founder and chairman, Colin Huang, revealed he’d be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/palashghosh/2021/03/17/pinduoduo-is-now-chinas-biggest-e-commerce-platform-as-billionaire-chairman-colin-huang-steps-down/">stepping down</a>. But why would Huang, who resigned as CEO in July and has a net worth of $50 billion according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes’</em>&nbsp;estimate, exit upon reaching such a milestone?&nbsp;</p>



<p>Rarely is stepping down easy for a chief executive, but it can be especially challenging for those who are employee No. 1. For Huang, the increased scrutiny his company, as well as the rest of the Chinese tech sector, has come under in recent months may have contributed to his decision to walk away. He’s not the only founder to have done so in recent months.&nbsp;</p>



<p>After CEO churn dropped 20% year-over-year with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.challengergray.com/blog/companies-ramp-up-ceo-changes-in-february-turnover-spikes-to-106/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1,314 exiting</a>&nbsp;in 2020—due, in part, to companies’ reluctance to make major leadership changes amid the coronavirus crisis—195 departed in the first two months of 2021, according to recruiting firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. Several have been founders. And while some did not resign voluntarily—including John Matze, who was ousted as the CEO of Parler after Amazon Web Services took the social app offline in response to its ties to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Leon Black, who stepped down as CEO of Apollo Global Management following an independent review of his relationship with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—most stepped down on their own accord, a result, says Jane Stevenson, vice chair of organizational consultancy Korn Ferry, of the pandemic.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“People are more mindful of the things they want to do, and if it’s a successful founder, there may be other priorities that they want to address sooner than later,” she says. “I’ve seen CEOs and board members who have said, ‘You know what, life is really short, and this is too much. I’m out.’”</p>



<p>For evidence of this trend, look no further than one of the most notable founder-CEO resignations of the year so far: Amazon’s billionaire Jeff Bezos. In February, he announced plans to step down as chief executive of the e-commerce giant he launched from his Seattle garage in 1994. Bezos, who&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;estimates is worth $178.1 billion, will be taking on the role of executive chair, while Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy succeeds him. In a memo to staff about the news, he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>, “When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else,” nodding to the time he now hopes to spend on his philanthropic Day 1 Fund and Bezos Earth Fund, aerospace company Blue Origin and&nbsp;<em>The Washington Post</em>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>At the time his announcement took the world by surprise, but perhaps it shouldn’t have. Amazon had just reported a record-breaking $125.6 billion in sales during the fourth quarter, and after 27 years at the helm, he’s going out on top, having spent more time in the chief executive role than most of his counterparts: While the average CEO tenure is longer than that of any other C-suite executive, it’s just 6.9 years, down from 8 years in 2016, according to <a href="https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/age-and-tenure-in-the-c-suite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> from Korn Ferry. “There are a lot less CEOs that have been over a decade in the job than there used to be,” Stevenson says. Many of the founder-CEOs who’ve stepped down this year have, like Bezos, been exceptions to this rule. “Founders are very tightly tied to the organizations [they start], from an identity standpoint,” she adds.</p>



<p>Kendra Scott, for example, stepped down as CEO of her namesake jewelry business in February, nearly 20 years after founding the company. With a majority stake in the brand, the Texas jewelry tycoon is worth $510 million by&nbsp;<em>Forbes’</em>&nbsp;estimate, and like Bezos, will remain involved with her brand, focusing on design, customer experience and philanthropy as executive chairwoman when Tom Nolan, currently president, takes over. After guiding her business through a period of rapid retail transformation in response to Covid-19, it’s likely Scott sees the impending return to normalcy as an opportunity for a leadership transition.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It might be a time for a change. It might be that the CEO says, ‘You know what, I&#8217;m going to see it through to stability but then I&#8217;m done,’” Stevenson says. “I think everybody’s been holding on in a lot of ways for a year.”</p>



<p>That’s certainly the case for Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani. A decade after founding the nonprofit, she decided it’s due for a leadership change, and when she steps down in April to become board chair, her COO, Dr. Tarika Barrett, will step up. “I&#8217;m a big believer that leaders cannot or should not stay in organizations forever, and that you can’t stay innovative if you have the same person leading the movement forever,” Saujani told<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2021/02/10/exclusive-dr-tarika-barrett-to-succeed-reshma-saujani-as-girls-who-code-ceo/"> <em>Forbes</em></a> in an exclusive interview last month. “I think that especially with Covid-19 happening, we were at a juncture as an organization. And in many ways, that is the right time for leadership change.” </p>



<p>A time of crisis can shine a light on the importance of succession planning, especially for founder-CEOs, who have both a professional and personal stake in their companies. For this reason, Stevenson says they tend to tap successors from within.</p>



<p>“When you think about where a company is heading, having the right leader to take it there is really critical,” Stevenson says. “It’s pretty clear from the data that it’s advantageous when possible to promote internally versus going externally for succession process, because you’ve got the cultural credibility, you&#8217;ve got an understanding, you’re already engaged in the market.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>It’s for this reason that just last week, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-salesforce-com-ceo/exclusive-salesforces-taylor-emerges-as-ceo-candidate-sources-idUSKBN2B12C0?il=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters report</a>&nbsp;that said Salesforce COO Bret Taylor is being groomed to take over as chief executive led to speculation that billionaire founder Marc Benioff might be the next founder-CEO to make a move. If these recent founder exits are any indication, though, if he does depart, he’ll likely not be going very far.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Very often, the founder moves to a chair role, whether it&#8217;s executive chair or non-executive chair,” Stevenson says. “It’s hard for a founder to step away entirely.”</p>



<p><em><strong>-by Samantha Todd, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Attends Amazon’s Annual Smbhav Event In Delhi

From Jeff Bezos To Kendra Scott: These Leaders All Recently Stepped Down From The Companies They Founded


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Billionaire Elon Musk has approached officials of a Texas county where SpaceX has a private launch site and rocket production facility about incorporating a new city to be called Starbase, officials said.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<ul><li>Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño <a href="https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex-incorporation-inquiry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> Tuesday Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, SpaceX, reached out about Musk’s interest in incorporating Boca Chica Village, where SpaceX is building its Starship rocket. </li></ul>



<ul><li>Treviño indicated the county is <a href="https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex-incorporation-inquiry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">open to incorporation</a>, but that the process must abide by all state incorporation statutes and said the county will process any petitions in line with the law.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk said Tuesday he’s hoping to incorporate “an area <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366859619461570561?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">much larger </a>than Boca Chica.” </li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk previously posted <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366848696298561536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1366848696298561536%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fembedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Felonmusk%2Fstatus%2F1366848696298561536image%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage3Furl3Dhttps253A252F252Fabs.twimg.com252Ferrors252Flogo46x38.png26key3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a mysterious statement</a> about creating a Texas city called Starbase on Tuesday, and later added it would be dog-friendly and led by <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366857632372256770?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Doge</a>, a reference to the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/02/04/i-am-become-meme-destroyer-of-shorts-dogecoin-soars-again-as-elon-musk-returns-from-self-imposed-twitter-exile/">Dogecoin</a> meme cryptocurrency he endorsed last month.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Creating the city of Starbase, Texas</p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366848696298561536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Musk, who&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;estimates is worth nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=4bcf1dae7999">$164 billion</a>, is expanding his footprint in the Lone Star State. SpaceX also has a site in McGregor, a city halfway between Austin and Dallas, and this week, a job posting revealed the company is looking to build&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/03/02/elon-musks-spacex-to-open-a-factory-in-austin-job-posting-reveals/?sh=4720c17d383b">a manufacturing facility</a>&nbsp;in Austin. The Boring Company began hiring in the Austin area in November, and the city was named the location of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/22/teslas-next-gigafactory-will-be-in-austin-texas-and-musk-says-it-will-be-stunning/">Tesla’s next gigafactory</a>. Musk confirmed in December he was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=41c0c6124948">moving to Texas</a>&nbsp;from California.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/03/02/elon-musks-spacex-to-open-a-factory-in-austin-job-posting-reveals/?sh=4720c17d383b">Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Open A Factory In Austin, Job Posting Reveals</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=41c0c6124948">Elon Musk Confirms He&#8217;s Moving From California To Texas</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/12/07/elon-musk-reportedly-relocated-his-foundation-to-texas-fueling-rumors-hell-move-there-too/?sh=2fd905c94f2a">Elon Musk Reportedly Relocated His Foundation To Texas, Fueling Rumors He’ll Move There Too</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><em><strong>By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Elon Musk Wants To Set Up A City Named Starbase Around His Texas Rocket Launch Site


<p><strong>The world’s fourth-richest person has a plan to save the planet from catastrophic climate change — and it&#8217;s cheaper than you think.</strong></p>



<p>Bill Gates wants you to know two numbers: 51 billion and zero. The former is the number of tons of greenhouse gases typically added to the atmosphere each year as a result of human activities. The latter is the number of tons we need to get to by 2050 in order to avert a climate crisis.</p>



<p>Gates has a plan for how to go from 51 billion to zero, and he’s happy to say it doesn’t come with a price tag in the trillions of dollars. As you might expect from a guy who made his fortune in technology, the billionaire’s suggested solution is tied in large part to innovation.&nbsp;</p>



<p>He spells out his plan in a new book,&nbsp;<em>How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need,&nbsp;</em>to be released on February 16. Ahead of the book launch, Gates talked to&nbsp;<em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>about why he wrote the book. He also shared details the book doesn’t get into, including how much he’s invested in zero-carbon companies, which ones he’s most excited about, including a new kind of nuclear power plant, and what he’s likely to invest in next.</p>



<p>Goal number one of the book, says Gates, is to clearly lay out which sectors of the economy are producing the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere each year. “The actual numeric framework, which is the most basic thing for any problem you want to tackle&#8230;that’s really been missing,” Gates says in a video interview from a conference room in his offices in Seattle. (See table for the percentage breakdown.)  The goal we as a planet need to aim for: zero emissions by 2050. Gates is optimistic that as hard as it sounds, we can get there.   </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-how-it-adds-up-globally-51-billion-tons"><span class="has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color">How It Adds Up Globally: 51 Billion Tons  </span></h2>



<p id="h-emissions-dropped-about-5-in-2020-due-to-the-pandemic-gates-estimates-but-in-a-normal-year-the-world-adds-51-billion-tons-of-greenhouse-gases-to-the-atmosphere-gates-writes-in-his-book"><strong>Emissions dropped about 5% in 2020 due to the pandemic, Gates estimates. But in a normal year the world adds 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Gates writes in his book.</strong></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="594" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-1024x594.png" alt="" class="wp-image-50037" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-1024x594.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-300x174.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-768x446.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-1536x892.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34-600x348.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screenshot-2021-02-18-at-11.05.34.png 1602w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Photo by Forbes </figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p>Gates admits, both in his book and when we spoke, that he is an imperfect messenger on climate change. “The very idea that one person is saying they know what we should do —appropriately, there is some pushback,” he says. In his book, he writes, “The world is not exactly lacking in rich men with big ideas about what other people should do, or who think technology can fix any problem.” He admits to owning big houses and flying in private jets, though he tells me that he buys carbon offsets for $400 a ton for the private jet flights he takes. “I can’t deny being a rich guy with an opinion. I do believe, though, that it is an informed opinion, and I am always trying to learn more,” he writes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Gates presciently warned in a 2015 talk about the dangers of a global pandemic and what we’d need to do to prepare for it. Similarly, this is not his first public prescription for the climate. In 2010 he gave a<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero?language=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;TED talk</a>&nbsp;calling for the need to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. He’s continued to consult experts in the field and delve into the latest in climate science and policy. In 2015 he got involved in the Paris Climate Summit, calling France’s then president, Francois Hollande, and encouraging him to get countries to agree to raise their R&amp;D budgets for clean tech innovation. Twenty countries signed on. Says Gates, “Although we did not see all those countries double their R&amp;D budgets, we did see some increase. That’s sort of when the field started to focus on can we get this innovation to take place.”</p>



<p>To help put a framework around progress and the cost of new carbon-free innovations, Gates and his team came up with a term called “Green Premium” and introduced it in his blog,<a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Introducing-the-Green-Premiums" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Gates Notes</a>, in September last year. As he explains it, the Green Premium spells out the difference in cost between a product or process that doesn’t emit carbon with one that does. Green Premiums have fallen in the passenger car sector to the point where more people are buying electric cars (though Gates points out that just 2% of global auto sales are electric vehicles). In the industrial sector, however, Green Premiums are much higher. Says Gates, “The hardest problems to solve are in areas like steel and concrete and even transportation things like aviation fuel.” The problems he’s referring to: coming up with processes to make these products that don’t emit greenhouse gases. The research is in its early stages, and that’s where government R&amp;D can play a role, Gates suggests.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What’s It All Going To Cost?&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>In December, Gates suggested<a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/How-the-US-can-lead-on-climate-change-innovation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;in his blog</a>&nbsp;that the U.S. create a National Institutes of Energy Innovation to help the country take the lead in climate change innovation. The idea is to model it after the National Institutes of Health, the backbone of U.S. medical research, which has an annual budget of about $37 billion. Gates says current U.S. government R&amp;D spending on energy innovation is about $7 billion annually; that would need to be quintupled to match government spending on the NIH.</p>



<p>Another suggestion from Gates: shift the tax credits now available for solar and wind to more nascent areas like offshore wind, energy storage and new types of steel. “If you do that, and maybe double or triple the amount you spend on those tax benefits, then I do think that will be just a monumental contribution from the Biden administration,” he explains.</p>



<p>Whatever tech innovation comes out of the U.S. or elsewhere has to be affordable enough for countries like India to adopt it, Gates points out. Right now, the U.S. accounts for 14% of the world’s emissions. If just the U.S. gets to zero carbon emissions, we won’t be solving the problem globally.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Where Gates Is Investing</strong></h3>



<p>Gates, whose<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?sh=68241add689f">&nbsp;$124 billion fortune</a>&nbsp;stems from an estimated 1% stake in Microsoft and a variety of other investments, says in the book he’s put “more than $1 billion” into companies working toward zero emissions. How much more? Altogether, he tells&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;it’s about $2 billion. He describes himself as perhaps the biggest funder of direct air capture technologies—methods to capture carbon from the air. Two of the more well-known companies he’s been an investor in are producing plant-based meats:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2020/07/30/impossible-foods-joins-beyond-on-the-shelves-of-walmart-americas-no-1-meat-seller/?sh=3d7caaf52685">Impossible Foods</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2020/11/16/green-and-lean-beyond-meat-announces-two-new-better-for-you-plant-based-burgers/?sh=49333f12299f">Beyond Meat</a>. Some of his investing he categorizes as philanthropic, like the money he’s put toward an open source climate model that aims to show how electricity generation will work in long periods of tough weather when wind and solar would be shut down.&nbsp;</p>



<p>His biggest bet has been on TerraPower, a nuclear power company with a reactor that uses depleted uranium as its fuel. Gates founded the company with a few others more than a decade ago. In 2017, TerraPower formed a joint venture with a Chinese company and was planning to produce its first reactor in China. That deal was scuttled by the U.S. government, which in late 2019 blocked U.S. cooperation with China on civilian nuclear power. Now the plan is to build a demonstration plant somewhere in the U.S. In October the U.S. Department of Energy awarded<a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/us-department-energy-announces-160-million-first-awards-under-advanced-reactor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;$80 million</a>&nbsp;to TerraPower toward construction of the plant; the agreement is that half of the funding will come from the private sector. Gates says, “That’s coming largely from me.”</p>



<p>His hope is that the demonstration plant will be built within five to seven years. “If things go well, that means that maybe in 10 years, commercial plant builders would take that design and build it ideally in the hundreds—which is what you need to have an impact on climate change.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Gates has also invested in zero-carbon companies through Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a group he assembled that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2016/12/12/bill-gates-launches-1-billion-breakthrough-energy-investment-fund/?sh=41728d6a5b7d">launched in December 2016</a>. “It was a lot easier to raise the money than I expected,” he says. “I made about 22 calls and got about 20 yeses for the first billion.” Investors include billionaires such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?sh=548de8471b23">Jeff Bezos</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/vinod-khosla/?sh=26fd668a3e07">Vinod Khosla</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/john-arnold/?sh=49c99d011001">John Arnold</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/john-doerr/?sh=53bd068026c5">John Doerr</a>; Gates says he’s the largest investor. So far Breakthrough Energy Ventures has invested in 40 companies; One, QuantumScape, which is developing lithium metal batteries for electric vehicles and has no revenues yet, went public through a SPAC last November. Though many of the companies are still early stage, Gates describes some as “really wild,” including QuidNet, which is working to store electricity by pumping water into pressured underground wells; when energy is needed, the water is released and goes through a turbine, creating electricity.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Breakthrough Energy Ventures raised another $1 billion fund in January, with most of the same initial investors and some newcomers. (Gates didn’t disclose names.) He says he’s the largest investor in the latest fund, too. The new fund will look to invest in more of the industrial processes like low-carbon cement and steel production as well as technologies to capture carbon from the air, Gates says.</p>



<p>Over the next five years, Gates says “I’ll put in at least $2 billion” toward zero-carbon technologies. But while a total of $4 billion is a lot of money, for someone worth more than $120 billion, it’s a small sliver of his overall investments. Says Gates, “It’s more limited by what is out there that can have a high impact.”</p>



<p>One of Gates’ other investments that’s been in the news recently seems to fly in the face of his zero-carbon focus. In early February, Gates’ investment arm, Cascade, partnered with Blackstone Group and private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners in a $4.7 billion deal to buy Signature Aviation, the world’s largest operator of private jet bases. Private jet travel has been booming during the pandemic, but such travel emits a heck of a lot of greenhouse gases. How does he square the deal with the premise of his book? A spokesperson for Gates did not reply to the question.</p>



<p>Will Gates’ book influence policy makers and move the needle toward innovation in zero-carbon technologies? It helps that combating climate change is already one of the Biden administration’s top four priorities. Given that the book is addressing weighty material, it’s relatively easy to read, sprinkled with Gates’ personal observations&nbsp; and even a photo of him with his son Rory on a visit to a geothermal power plant in Iceland. (Gates says he and Rory liked to visit power plants for fun.) He mentions that he drives an electric car&nbsp;<strong>—&nbsp;</strong>the Porsche Taycan Turbo, which he describes to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;as “ridiculously nice and ridiculously expensive” — that sells for $150,000 or more. (He’s such a fan that he got one of the first demo models, he adds.)</p>



<p>If nothing else, Gates wants to get people talking. “My hope is that we can shift the conversation by sharing the facts with the people in our lives— our family members, friends, and leaders<strong>.</strong>&nbsp;And not just the facts that tell us why we need to act, but also those that show us the actions that will do the most good,” he writes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A bigger measure of his success will be whether the Biden administration adopts any of his policy proposals. Says Gates, “I do think that with those increases [in spending], we’ll be doing exactly what we need to do, not just for us, but for the entire world.”</p>



<p><em>By Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff</em></p>


2019 New York Times Dealbook

How To Solve Climate Change: Bill Gates Wants You To Know Two Numbers


<p><strong>South African- born, billionaire technology and space entrepreneur, Elon Musk, made history at the start of 2021, overtaking Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the richest man on Earth. While his fortune was made on this planet, his dreams to venture to the final frontier remain. FORBES AFRICA takes a look at his journey to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated innovators and one of the wealthiest men alive.</strong></p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">THE MAN WHO FAMOUSLY SAID THAT HE WOULDN’T BE HAPPY UNTIL WE WERE ALL LIVING ON MARS, IS NOW ONE OF THE RICHEST MEN ON EARTH. WHILE ELON MUSK’S PLANS TO BE BURIED IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY REMAIN UNCHANGED, HE’S STILL GOT MUCH TO CELEBRATE IN THE HERE AND NOW.</p>



<p>On January 8 this year, at approximately 11.30AM on the American East Coast, Musk, known for founding some of the world’s most progressive tech companies, along with his unrelenting space-age ambitions, made yet another historical leap.</p>



<p>His net worth soared by $12.5 billion, to $189.7 billion, making him, for a time, the wealthiest person on the planet, according to <em>Forbes</em>, who broke the news. For the first time, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who had held the top spot for a record four years, came second with a cumulative net worth of $185 billion.</p>



<p>However, in a twist of fate, stock in his electric car company, Tesla, fell by 8%, denting his personal wealth by a hefty $14 billion, overnight. But like the man himself, Musk’s wealth wouldn’t be down for long.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-819x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49882" width="376" height="470" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-300x375.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-600x750.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208933748-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px" /><figcaption>UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA &#8211; FEBRUARY 26: Model Maye Musk (Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>Elon’s aim is to save the planet and he also loves the thought of going to Mars&#8230;. I get very excited every step of the way. We all do. Kimbal and Tosca [Elon’s siblings] and I go to the main [SpaceX] launches, we can’t go to all the launches, as he has launched, how many now&#8230; 50 rockets? I’m not sure. I lose track. But we go to the main ones, and we are anxious beforehand and excited afterward and we are very proud of him and support him with all this. He just feels that we should be inter-planetary, starting with Mars. Mars seems to be the most friendly [planet], and that is what he would like to explore.<br></p><cite>-Elon Musk’s mother Maye Musk, in an interview from Los Angeles with FORBES AFRICA last year about her memoir, <em>A Woman Makes A Plan</em>, released by Jonathan Ball Publishers</cite></blockquote>



<p>Days later, with the swift rebound of Tesla shares by 4.7%, he wrestled the top spot from Bezos with an impressive recovery of $7.8 billion bringing his total net worth to $183.8 billion against the Amazon founder’s, marginal, but impressive, $182.4 billion.</p>



<p>At the time of going to press, the yo-yo action continued. Tesla’s stock volatility returned Bezos to the top spot, making him the world’s richest by just $200 million, with Musk making a close second. The game is set to continue for much of the year, but it won’t do much to change the fact that both billionaires are still over $30 billion richer than their nearest competitor; the third person on the list, French luxury tycoon, Bernard Arnault,  according to <em>Forbes </em>estimates.</p>



<p>Musk’s dizzying ascent is quite an achievement given that, in 2014, he ranked 47th on the U.S. Rich List, compiled by <em>Forbes</em>, with his personal net worth hovering at the $9.4 billion mark, at contemporary rates.</p>



<p>Notwithstanding his meteoric rise, most studies of Musk begin at SpaceX, his landmark aerospace manufacturing outfit, launched in 2002 with plans to make space travel more affordable and meet its founder’s often parodied mandate to catalyze humanity’s colonization of Mars.</p>



<p>“I’d like to go to Mars. I suppose it depends on how old I am when I get there&#8230; But it’s not about me going to Mars. We’re developing new technologies to enable a large number of people to go to Mars and be able to develop a self-sustaining city on Mars,” he told <em>Forbes </em>in 2014.</p>



<p>Inter-planetary ambitions aside, Musk’s ideas often overshadow the story of his origins which are rooted in a very down-to-earth Pretoria suburb, a few miles north of Johannesburg, in South Africa. Born in 1971 to a Canadian mother and a South African father, it was clear that Musk was unique from the start.</p>



<p>“The kind of things he would come up with as a youngster was always surprising. When he was very small, he would ask me, ‘where is the whole world?’, when he was three or four. It was these sorts of questions that made me realize that he was a little different,” his father, Errol Musk, noted in a 2012 interview with FORBES AFRICA.</p>



<p>Eccentricities aside, the young Musk was equally academically gifted.</p>



<p>“We called Elon ‘The Encyclopedia’ because he had read the <em>Encyclopaedia Britannica </em>and <em>Collier’s Encyclopedia</em>, and remembered everything. That’s also why we called him ‘Genius Boy’. We could ask him anything. Remember, this was before the internet. I guess now we would call him ‘The Internet’,” his mother, Maye Musk, recalls in her 2019 autobiography, <em>A Woman Makes a Plan</em>.</p>



<p>Attending Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS), often considered one of the most prestigious schools in South Africa, a teenage Musk kept to himself but found plenty of company in computers. He taught himself how to program using an old manual and eventually sold a space-themed video game that he wrote called <em>Blastar, </em>to a computing magazine in 1984, reportedly for $500, arguably the earliest of his tech ventures.</p>



<p>“My impression is that Elon kept to himself and was relatively quiet and reserved. I believe he was involved with the computer club at school, but otherwise was not really visible in mainstream activities,” Gavin Ehlers, head-boy at PBHS in 1988, the same year Musk graduated, told FORBES AFRICA in 2012.</p>



<p>Yet, despite his remarkable talent and comfortable upbringing, Musk’s childhood was blighted with peculiar challenges. As the shortest, smallest, and smartest kid in the class, he was an easy target for bullies, who tormented him until he was 15 years old.</p>



<p>“I was a late bloomer. So I was the youngest and the smallest kid in class for years and years&#8230; The gangs at school would hunt me down – literally hunt me down,” Musk told <em>Rolling Stone </em>magazine in 2017.</p>



<p>At home, things weren’t easier. His parents divorced in 1980.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>If somebody else is working 50 hours and you’re working a 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of the year as the other company.</p></blockquote>



<p>The tumult of his early life did much to shape the man that Musk would later become. Even as a youngster, he held strong to his principles. At the time, in apartheid South Africa, mandatory two-year military service was in force for all white males who had completed their secondary school or tertiary- level education. In his objection, Musk said he didn’t prescribe to what the state was doing to its citizens.</p>



<p>“I don’t have an issue with serving in the military per se, but serving in the South African army suppressing black people just didn’t seem like a really good way to spend time,” he explained in the 2007 book, <em>Rocketeers</em>, by Michael Belfiore.</p>



<p>At 17, Musk relocated to Canada to attend university in 1989. After a number of transfers, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, part of the prominent Ivy League in the United States, with a dual degree in Economics and Physics, setting him firmly on the path of a tech entrepreneur. Like all the greats, he dropped out of his Ph.D. program at Stanford, instead of establishing his first startup, against the euphoria of the dot-com boom of the nineties. He founded the company, Zip2, with his younger brother, Kimbal – who has been a keen business partner to Musk throughout his entrepreneurial career – in 1995.</p>



<p>“When my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment we rented a small office and slept on the couch. We were so hard-up we had just one computer so the website was up during the day and I was coding at night. Seven days a week&#8230; all the time. I briefly had a girlfriend during that period and in order to be with me she had to sleep at the office,” he said with a smile, during a 2014 Commencement Speech at the University of Southern California (USC).</p>



<p>Hard work is a cornerstone of Musk’s entrepreneurial ethos. His constant refrain to anyone who inquires on his success is to outwork the competition, where possible, to get that all important edge.</p>



<p>“If somebody else is working 50 hours and you’re working a 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of the year as the other company,” he told the audience at USC.</p>



<p>Clearly, the hard work has paid off for Musk who joined the five-man centi-billionaires club; all with a net worth over $100 billion, in August 2020.</p>



<p>Members include Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and veteran tech titan, Bill Gates.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>&#8220;Given that as a South African, he has managed to conquer the industry he’s in should be an inspiration to us and to Africa, in general. There are many sides to him&#8230; But let us draw inspiration from him because he is a product of the public school system in South Africa.&#8221; &#8211;<strong><em><span class="has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color">Fred Khumalo, author and journalist, South Africa</span></em></strong></p></blockquote>



<p>However, it hasn’t been an easy ride to the top. In 2018, Tesla was in dire straits, the company was struggling to build a viable product and was hemorrhaging cash almost daily. Musk had already sunk a bulk of his early fortune in the business, some of which came from the $165 million sale of his stake in PayPal, the online payments pioneer, after his exit as CEO.</p>



<p>Leading the company during that time took a toll. In a very personal interview with <em>The New York Times</em>, Musk revealed that he was losing sleep and had spent most of his birthday working on the factory floor, where he was also spending most of his days and nights. The work had taken over to the point of almost missing Kimbal’s wedding, where he was the best man. A disheveled Musk admitted that while he regretted the havoc it wreaked on his life, he had no regrets about being so determined to pull Tesla from the brink of collapse.</p>



<p>“The worst is over from a Tesla operational standpoint. But from a personal pain standpoint&#8230; the worst is yet to come,” he told <em>The New York Times</em>.</p>



<p>Musk’s passion is evident in almost everything he has done, and in every business he has built. After leaving PayPal, and selling his stake in the company, he used a bulk of the $165 million fortune to found the companies that would make his name – SpaceX and Tesla. Any seasoned entrepreneur would have considered the move a risky one but Musk was quite adamant about his ambitions and making them a reality.</p>



<p>“I think there was like literally one week where I actually worked 120 hours and just didn’t leave the factory. I didn’t even go outside,” Musk told American television news magazine program, <em>60 Minutes</em>, in 2018.</p>



<p>His intense work ethic has not only worked to transform Tesla but has inspired a number of other young entrepreneurs to build the electric car industry and get rich in the process.</p>



<p>For example, William Li, who founded electric car maker, Nio, in 2014, was 12 times richer in 2020 thanks to his shares in the U.S.-listed carmaker.<br>In fact, he’s now among the world’s 500 richest people, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Chinese entrepreneur, He Xiaopeng, chairman of XPeng Motors, has also seen his wealth jump more than 600%. Overall, fortunes of the handful of people tracked by the Bloomberg index in the electric vehicle industry have gone up by over $140 billion including Musk’s $111 billion surge.</p>



<p>However, far removed from his status on the global billionaire league tables, which have come to form the foundation of his popularity, Musk maintains his very own niche but loyal following, all devoted to his Twitter feed; his preferred mode of communication. Muskians, as they are known, see him as an eclectic superhero figure of the modern age where he is at once a conscientious technology entrepreneur and demi-god.</p>



<p>However, in 2020, following statements made on the impact the Trump administration’s Covid-19 policy responses had on his business, Musk received heavy back- lash from the mainstream and even managed to alienate some of his loyal fans. But all is forgotten now that the South African-born entrepreneur is among the world’s richest men.</p>



<p>While his wealth may be a relentless conversation starter, globally, it’s hard to ignore Musk’s legacy in the business arena. The journey from a quiet, intelligent and passionate young entrepreneur to an influential manufacturing magnate has been driven not just by a belief in hard work but by an ability to settle for dreams beyond the stars.</p>



<p>For generations to come, his place in time will always be confirmed by his commitment to not only conjure up ‘moonshot’ ideas but to actively pursue them; to Mars and back.</p>



<p>&#8211;<strong><em>BY MARIE SHABAYA</em></strong></p>



<p><strong>Get Your Copy Of FORBES AFRICA <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/product/single-digital-issue-the-billionaires-list-feb-march-2021/">here</a></strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-793x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49836" width="285" height="367" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-793x1024.jpg 793w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-232x300.jpg 232w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-768x991.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-1190x1536.jpg 1190w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-1586x2048.jpg 1586w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-300x387.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-600x775.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FA-OFC-2021-Feb_March-scaled.jpg 1983w" sizes="(max-width: 285px) 100vw, 285px" /></figure></div>


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