After more than a decade of annual losses, Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TSLA</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla">+0.2%</a>&nbsp;extended its profitability streak to five consecutive quarters, a company first, as increased sales of Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles and pollution credits boosted net income to $331 million, its highest to date.



The Palo Alto, California-based company led by billionaire entrepreneur&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;earnings per share of 27 cents in the quarter, up from 16 cents a year ago. Revenue jumped 39% to $8.77 billion from $6.3 billion in 2019’s third quarter. As usual, sales of emissions credits to other automakers fattened the quarterly profits. Tesla reported $397 million of credit sales, essentially free money that goes a long way toward keeping the company in the black.&nbsp;



The upbeat results come after Tesla said this month that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/10/02/teslas-electric-car-shipments-jump-44-as-production-rebounds-from-coronavirus-slump/">deliveries of its electric cars and crossovers jumped 44%</a> in the quarter to the highest in company history, aided by the new Shanghai plant. Even as the company works to ramp up that $2 billion facility, it’s also begun construction of a $4 billion Gigafactory in Berlin and a new U.S. Gigafactory that will be built near Austin, Texas, at a cost of about $1 billion. Even with added capacity in China, it’s unclear whether Tesla will hit Musk’s goal of selling 500,000 vehicles this year. 



“We have the capacity installed to produce and deliver 500,000 vehicles this year,” Tesla said in a letter to investors. “While achieving this goal has become more difficult, delivering half a million vehicles in 2020 remains our target. Achieving this target depends primarily on quarter over quarter increases in Model Y and Shanghai production, as well as further improvements in logistics and delivery efficiency at higher volume levels.”



The results were generally higher than analysts anticipated. Tesla shares rose about 3.3% in after-hours Nasdaq <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nasdaq" target="_blank">NDAQ</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nasdaq">+2.6%</a> trading to $436.75. The stock was little changed at the close, ahead of earnings, at $422.64. 



ird Bridge Group in New York. “Not super surprising&nbsp;given how much they beat on deliveries, which was revealed earlier this month.”



Tesla’s operating margin of 9.2% was slightly below expectations, likely reflecting a vehicle mix that has skewed toward the Model 3 and Model Y, the company’s lowest margin vehicles, and away from the pricier Model S and Model X, Shields said.



Sales of pollution credits, including California zero-emission vehicle and U.S. CAFE credits, have become a lucrative source of revenue for Tesla as they are generated for each electric vehicle it sells. The $397 million received in the third quarter brings its year-to-date credit sales total to $1.18 billion, double 2019’s full year total.



“The regulatory credits business was stronger than our expectations,” Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said in a conference all. “We are tracking to more than double this year compared to last.”



Fourth-quarter deliveries will be critical to watch “given that they have softened their language around the previously stated goal of 500 K for the year,” he said. To reach that target, Tesla will have to get just over 180,000 vehicles to customers in the final quarter of 2020.



The company had about $14.5 billion of cash at of the end of the quarter and said it “should have sufficient liquidity to fund our product roadmap, long-term capacity expansion plans and other expenses.”



“We are currently building Model Y capacity at Gigafactory Shanghai, Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas, and remain on track to start deliveries from each location in 2021,” the company said. “Tesla Semi deliveries will also begin in 2021. We continue to significantly invest in our product roadmap.”



Despite the pandemic, Musk’s wealth has surged this year because of his nearly 25% ownership stake in Tesla. Forbes estimates his net worth at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">$88.7 billion</a> as of Oct. 21.



-By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff

Elon Musk visits construction site of the Tesla Giga Factory

Tesla Stays In The Black For A Fifth Quarter, Buoyed By Emissions Credit Sales

Elon Musk on Monday hinted at his plans to take SpaceX’s space internet venture, Starlink, public in several years when revenue growth is “smooth and predictable” as the firm, which eventually aims to provide broadband around the world, is servicing towns in Washington ravaged by wildfires along the U.S. West Coast.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



The Tesla CEO revealed his plans on Twitter, saying small retail investors will “get top priority” when the company is listed: “You can hold me to it.”



Investors may be waiting a while — Musk said he will only take the company public in several years when revenue growth is smooth and predictable, adding: “Public market does *not* like erratic cash flow.”.



Last year, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/15/musk-on-starlink-internet-satellites-spacex-has-sufficient-capital.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;he believed Starlink would be an important revenue stream for SpaceX, with ambitions to provide high-speed internet around the world.



It comes as the company is assisting the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division as it responds to towns devastated by wildfires, providing internet access to emergency responders and the public.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



In February, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/spacex-likely-to-spin-off-starlink-business-and-pursue-an-ipo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told investors</a>&nbsp;of the company’s plans to spin out Starlink into a separate business and take the company public.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious internet-from-space project, involving a constellation of thousands of satellites that will deliver high speed internet access across the globe. SpaceX is optimistic about Starlink’s future. The company says it is already seeing an “extraordinary demand” from potential customers for its satellite broadband service, CNBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/01/spacex-starlink-extraordinary-demand-with-nearly-700000-interested.html#:~:text=Investing%20in%20Space-,SpaceX%20says%20Starlink%20internet%20has%20'extraordinary%20demand%2C'%20with,nearly%20700%2C000%20interested%20in%20service&amp;text=SpaceX%20asked%20regulators%20if%20it,5%20million%20from%201%20million." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>, with nearly 700,000 individuals in the US alone. Starlink’s website says it is targeting the US and Canada in 2020 and rapidly expanding “to near global coverage” by 2021.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Elon Musk tweeted: “We will&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1310672832783884290?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">probably IPO Starlink</a>, but only several years in the future when revenue growth is smooth &amp; predictable. Public market does *not* like erratic cash flow haha. I’m a huge fan of small retail investors. Will make sure they get top priority. You can hold me to it.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT&nbsp;</h4>



Starlink’s enormous constellation of satellites have proven controversial since the first set was launched last year. Some complain they&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/12/stars-astronomy-spacex-satellite-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">obstruct the night sky</a>&nbsp;and the European Space Agency said it had to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/03/european-satellite-in-near-collision-with-elon-musk-spacex-craft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">alter the trajectory&nbsp;</a>of one of its observation satellites to avoid a collision with a Starlink satellite.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h4>



The race for space has only just begun and Musk isn’t the only billionaire with his eyes set skyward. Jeff Bezos will be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2020/07/31/amazon-is-going-to-add-3000-more-satellites-into-earths-orbit--and-people-are-not-happy/#2581898d7628">overseeing</a>&nbsp;Amazon’s own constellation of internet-providing satellites, Project Kuiper, which received FCC approval this summer. Bezos’ Blue Origin is also involved in the space race, currently developing reusable launch vehicles.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/spacex-likely-to-spin-off-starlink-business-and-pursue-an-ipo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk’s SpaceX Plans a Spinoff, IPO for Starlink Business</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/08/18/billionaire-elon-musk-raises-19-billion-in-new-funding-for-spacex/#59a59c272404">Billionaire Elon Musk Raises $1.9 Billion In New Funding For SpaceX</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2020/02/06/an-ipo-of-spacexs-starlink-business-would-let-investors-bet-on-elon-musk-disrupting-another-industry/#5ee646097b78">An IPO of SpaceX’s Starlink Business Would Let Investors Bet On Elon Musk Disrupting Another Industry</a> (Forbes)



&#8211;-BY Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

gettyimages-1130598362-594×594

Billionaire Elon Musk Teases IPO For Starlink, SpaceX’s Satellite Internet Business

<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;intends to expand Tesla’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TSLA</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla">-5.6%</a>&nbsp;lead in electric vehicles by shifting to a new, bigger type of lithium-ion cell that’s 56% cheaper and by massively increasing battery production to create a huge competitive advantage. But it’s going to take a few years to make them at high-volume and the manufacturing system needed to do that isn’t quite ready.&nbsp;



The billionaire entrepreneur, who has hyped the electric-car maker’s “Battery Day” for months, used the event staged in the parking lot of Tesla’s Palo Alto, California, headquarters to unveil the 4680 cell company engineers developed in-house. More than double the size of the current 2170-format cells Tesla uses, the new chemical devices provide five times the energy, 16% more range, and six-times the power, according to Musk and Drew Baglino, senior vice president for powertrain and energy engineering.



Limited production of the new cells has begun at a pilot battery factory in Silicon Valley, though it’s going to take time to ramp up to the terawatt-hour level of output Musk envisions. “It&#8217;s probably about a year before we get to the 10-gigawatt-hour annualized rate with the pilot plant, and this is just a pilot plant. The actual production plants will be more on the order of maybe 200-gigawatt hours, maybe more over time.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">It&#8217;s close to working, but it&#8217;s not even now at the pilot plant level.</blockquote>



But he then clarified that are still kinks in the new production system for the 4680 cells. “To be clear, I would like to not say that right now it’s just totally working. It&#8217;s close to working, but it&#8217;s not even now at the pilot plant level. It is close to working. All I can think it&#8217;s fair to say probably it does work, but with not a good … not a high yield.”



While Musk earlier this month had said the event would be “<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1306504307148075008?s=20" target="_blank">very insane</a>,” he dialed that back on Sept. 21 by noting that Battery Day announcements affect “will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.” And even as Tesla scales up production of its new cell, it will continue to buy 2170 cells from suppliers Panasonic, LG Chem and China’s CATL.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">We intend to increase, not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic, LG &amp; CATL (possibly other partners too). However, even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed, we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 &amp; beyond unless we also take action ourselves.&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1308149191684710400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



To accommodate production of its new battery, Tesla plans to build a factory to make cathode material, and it’s switching from the use of graphite in the anode to lower-cost silicon. The company has also acquired rights to source lithium it needs from 10,000 acres in Nevada, though Musk didn’t disclose the location of the property and what’s spending on that operation.&nbsp;



The battery news followed the company’s annual shareholder meeting, done drive-in movie style this year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, with attendees watching the event from their Tesla vehicles in the company lot. Honks and beeps replaced the cheering for Musk typically heard at company events.&nbsp;



Of note during the annual meeting portion was the consideration of two items proposed by activist Tesla investors who want better disclosure of worker conditions and their treatment as well as a commitment to ensure that all raw materials needed for batteries and other components are sourced ethically. Tesla’s board recommended voting against both measures, and they appear likely to fail.&nbsp;



While the discussion of the new cell was highly detailed, the company’s multiyear timetable for introducing it as well as new advancements in its production system to allow for lower-cost manufacturing, appeared to disappoint investors. Tesla fell about 7% in after-hours Nasdaq&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nasdaq" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NDAQ</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nasdaq">+1%</a>&nbsp;trading to $394.98, after finishing regular trading down 5.6%.



Battery Day, like most recent Tesla events, was attended mainly by fans of the company. During a concluding Q&amp;A session, there were no questions from either equity analysts or journalists.



By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff

Elon Musk Reveals Tesla Model Y Crossover; To Start At $39,000

Tesla Has A Cheaper, Bigger Battery Cell–But Needs Time To Reach ‘Terawatt-Hour’ Production

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST



After briefly becoming the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/08/31/elon-musk-100-billion-net-worth/#7d8e258880ed">fifth centibillionaire in the world</a> on Monday, August 31, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended the week down $9.9 billion as tech companies — and their founders’ fortunes — took a hit.



While tech companies have largely been driving the stock market’s surge during the pandemic, heavyweights like Facebook and Amazon took a spill on Thursday and Friday during what some observers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bd5804ef-94d0-45b4-9c2b-8fb7996ec5f6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">are calling a correction</a>. The S&amp;P 500 was down 2.3% for the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 1.8%. Tesla stock started to falter on Wednesday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/teslas-largest-outside-shareholder-reduces-holding-citing-portfolio-restrictions.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">after news broke that</a>&nbsp;its largest outside shareholder, Scottish investment firm Ballie Gifford, reduced its stake in the company. The stock ended the week down 5.5%.&nbsp;



Even with the decline, Musk is four times wealthier than he was a year ago, with a net worth of $87.9 billion. He is currently the fifth richest person in the world, $5.5 billion ahead of Warren Buffett.



The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, hit a milestone last week when he became the first person tracked by Forbes with a fortune that exceeded $200 billion. With Amazon shares worth 3% less than a week ago at the market close on Friday, Bezos’ fortune dropped  $5.8 billion to $193.5 billion. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott (net worth: $62.4 billion), is $2 billion poorer this week.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="425" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46514" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1148401100-594x594-1-300x215.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 6, 2019. (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune fell $4 billion as Facebook shares dropped 3.7% in the past week. He’s been more vocal than ever before about political misinformation on the social media platform and announced steps to mitigate the problem. On Wednesday, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced a&nbsp;<a href="https://gizmodo.com/zuckerberg-drops-300-million-to-support-u-s-elections-1844921516" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$300 million donation</a>&nbsp;to support voting infrastructure, such as protective equipment for poll workers and polling place rentals. On Thursday, he said that Facebook would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/09/03/facebook-will-block-new-political-ads-in-the-week-leading-up-to-election-day/#30873f0b7950">block new political ads</a>&nbsp;during the week before Election Day, and flag posts in which a candidate tries to claim a premature victory.&nbsp;



Quicken Loans cofounder Dan Gilbert had a chaotic week as shares of the online mortgage lender’s parent company, Rocket Companies, soared midweek ahead of the company’s first earnings report since it went public in August. Although <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thestreet.com/investing/rocket-rkt-earnings-mortgage-initial-public-offering" target="_blank">it reported strong profits</a>, the stock corrected itself and ended the week down more than 13%. As of Friday, September 4, Gilbert is worth $51 billion — $7.3 billion less than last week, but nearly eight times richer than he was a year ago.



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



HERE ARE THE BILLIONAIRES WHOSE FORTUNES FELL THE MOST THIS WEEK.



The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, August 28, to Friday, September 4.



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">1 | ELON MUSK</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$87.9 BILLION, DOWN $9.9 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH |&nbsp;TESLA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">2 | DAN GILBERT</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$51 BILLION, DOWN $7.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | QUICKEN LOANS



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">3 | JEFF BEZOS</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$193.5 BILLION, DOWN&nbsp;$5.8 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES﻿



SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">4 |  STEVE BALLMER</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$72.9 BILLION, DOWN $4.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | MICROSOFT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">5 | MARK ZUCKERBERG</h4>



NET WORTH | &nbsp;$103.8 BILLION, DOWN $4 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | FACEBOOK



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">6 | LARRY ELLISON</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$74.2 BILLION, DOWN $2.7 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ORACLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">7 | AMANCIO ORTEGA</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$65.3 BILLION, DOWN $2.5 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;SPAIN



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ZARA



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">8 | MA HUATENG</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$57.5 BILLION, DOWN $2.3 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;CHINA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | TENCENT



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">9 | LARRY PAGE</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$70.6 BILLION, DOWN $2.2 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



<h4 class="has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-heading">10 | SERGEY BRIN</h4>



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$68.7 BILLION, DOWN $2.1 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



-Ariel Shapiro, Forbes Staff

Key Speakers At The Satellite 2020 Conference

Elon Musk Down Nearly $10 Billion In One Week As Tech Stocks Plunge

Tesla shares spiked 11.2% on Monday, boosting Elon Musk’s net worth by $7 billion to $83.6 billion. The hefty stock gain makes the 49-year-old entrepreneur the fifth-richest person in the world, pushing Musk ahead of Indian oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani and investing luminary Warren Buffett.



Not that he’s keeping track. The eccentric billionaire says he’s indifferent to his standing on our rich list. “I really couldn’t care less,” Musk emailed Forbes about his net worth in July. “These numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.”



Musk first rose to fifth place in late July, when his net worth topped $74 billion, but was soon surpassed by Ambani. Now Tesla shares are up nearly 32% in the past five days. With the stock on a tear, Musk’s fortune has more than tripled since mid-March, when he ranked 31st on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list. He owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half his stake as collateral for loans; Forbes applies a discount to his shares because of the loans.



The stock jumped on Monday after an analyst upgraded his 12-month price target to $1,900; Tesla’s share price is currently $1,835.64. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes that Tesla, which opened a new factory in Shanghai in late 2019, is well-positioned to take advantage of increasing Chinese demand for electric vehicles. Ives also predicted that Musk will reveal “game-changing” news at the upcoming Battery Day on September 22.



Tesla is the most valuable automaker in the world, with a market capitalization of $342 billion despite producing substantially fewer vehicles than competitors such as Ford and Toyota. A five-for-one stock split will take effect after the market closes on August 28.



FURTHER READING



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2020/08/12/i-am-just-getting-started-maye-musk-on-her-new-book-modeling-mars-and-her-genius-boy-elon/" target="_blank">‘I Am Just Getting Started’: Maye Musk On Her New Book, Modeling, Mars And Her ‘Genius Boy’ Elon</a> (Forbes Africa)



-Hayley C. Cuccinello, Forbes Staff

gettyimages-490597722-594×594

Elon Musk Now The World’s Fifth-Richest Person (Again), After $7 Billion Bump From Tesla Stock Surge

She has had a life of struggle and adventure, and even before being known as the mother of South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, was a star sashaying down the runway at the New York Fashion Week at the age of 67, rewriting the rules of the modeling industry. Maye Musk speaks to us from her home in Los Angeles about her new memoir, A Woman Makes A Plan, released by Jonathan Ball Publishers, and how Elon was always her ‘genius boy’ and is now set on exploring Mars. Excerpts from the interview:



You are 72 years old and a grandmother to 12 grandkids. How do you manage to look great and also be a model, dietician, author and entrepreneur? Women can do anything and everything… I have to eat very well to maintain a healthy weight and have a lot of energy. I have also never smoked, which is great and I wear a hat in the sun and sunscreen. You need to look after yourself and stay healthy and then, of course, the world is the limit. And then there’s Mars…



You grew up in Pretoria (South Africa) and in your book, recount your trips traveling with your parents across the Kalahari Desert every winter. Your family motto was ‘live dangerously — carefully’. Have you always been adventure-seekers? With my parents coming from Canada, from a small town, to South Africa, they just wanted to explore Africa and the world in a single engine plane. They did a lot of that and then they took all five children to the Kalahari Desert… with a compass and we would map it out and we would map the hills… [when] all my friends went to the beach… but it’s so weird my parents were so adventurous, it was wonderful!



Your older son Elon Musk, as the founder of Tesla, makes electric cars and launches rockets into space. Your second son Kimbal is a food entrepreneur and your daughter Tosca a filmmaker. What was it like raising three successful kids as a struggling single mother? How did you navigate great sadness and stress along the way?



Funny enough, when I told my children my book agent wants me to write about my life and the lessons I’ve learned and they said, ‘you’ve got to bring your struggles into your book’, and I said, ‘oh you know, I never complain’, so they said, ‘no, people need to know what you’ve been through’. So I put the struggles in and then when I read it with my editor, I said ‘oh, I have got to take some of these chapters out’, and she said, ‘no, women will relate to them’, and that’s why my struggles are in there.If you are in a bad situation, you just have to get out; you have to get out quicker than I did. You have to find a way and share your problem with your family and friends. Interestingly, my twin sister and my two brothers had no idea what I was going through. I never came across as struggling as I never complained. I was always happy. My point is, if you complain all the time, then you’re not interesting or fun or beautiful because you are just miserable. That’s why I never told anyone what I had been through, but nowadays, if you need help, you need to tell people.



What is your advice for overcoming stress and depression? I never went through depression. Depression means you can’t get up in the morning. I had to get up, get the kids to school and be at work at 7.30AM. So I didn’t have depression but I had a lot of sadness and rightly so, because I was scared and had to feed the kids. And then my ex-husband, after my divorce for 11 years, had me in lawsuits. That was exhausting and you live in constant fear. When it comes to depression, because I’m a dietician, and I’ve counseled patients for 45 years, and many of them were depressed and some had a reason, sometimes poor health, and I could help them eat better. If there is a reason for the depression, you need to talk it out. If it is because of things that have happened in the past, then I recommend they don’t continually complain about their past, because it just makes them less interesting.When it came to dating, every time I met a man, he would tell me about his miserable life and I would say, ‘I feel like I’m counseling, I am getting out of here!. When they want to date someone, men also need to be fun and have some kind of interest other than their miserable lives.



You have called Elon your ‘genius boy’ in your book. He got his first computer at 12, and learned to use it and wrote a computer program, BLASTAR. He published it at the age of 13. How did you see that interest in technology in him bloom? I told people when he was three that he was a genius and people were like, ‘oh, you are such a mother’, because all mothers think like that. Then, I would say, ‘no, really’. He would read the encyclopaedia and remember everything in there, so he really was our encyclopaedia. I mean I can read a book and I would forget it soon afterwards but he does not forget those things. It was when he was 12 [that] he showed me his computer program when I was teaching modeling to university students. I showed it to some of the computer students and they said, ‘oh, he knows all the short cuts, it looks great’. So, I told him he had to submit the program to a magazine and he did. I don’t think they knew that he was only 13, and he got R500 for it; how cool is that?



What does it take to raise a billionaire? I did not raise a billionaire – [Elon] was sleeping on the floor on a mattress. And that wasn’t his aim [to become a billionaire]. His aim is to save the planet and he also loves the thought of going to Mars. I raised all three of my kids the same way my parents raised me, to be independent, to make your own choices and be responsible for them, and also to take on work that will benefit other people. For example, Tosca has a platform called Passionflix and she takes best-selling romance novels and makes them into movies. In these movies, the women are paid as much as the men and they are strong, and confident and successful. They aren’t beaten up, violated and abused and there are always happy endings. It makes me feel good she is making movies that make people happy. With Kimbal, besides his farm-to-table restaurants, which helps the farmers, he does vegetable gardens in underserved schools. He has built 650 vegetable gardens in schools; he wanted to do 1,000 by the end of the year, but of course, everything’s got delayed with the lockdown. The children get so excited to plant seeds and water them and pick them out of the ground and prepare them and eat them. I mean to get kids excited about vegetables; well, it makes a dietician like me very happy.



Your son Elon’s pioneering work is to one day inhabit Mars. Did you always see that interest in him for space? Do you share that with him? I get very excited every step of the way. We all do. Kimbal and Tosca and I go to the main launches, we can’t go to all the launches, as Elon has launched, how many now… 50 rockets? I’m not sure. I lose track. But we go to the main ones, and we are anxious beforehand and excited afterwards 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.



What do you call Elon Musk’s youngest son (whose name is X Æ A-12)? I call him ‘X’. We are all still in quarantine so we are Covid-free. We see each other when we can but not as often we used to.



What next for Maye Musk? I am just getting started and once the airports open up and will accept Americans into other countries, my book launch will go into all the major countries, hopefully South Africa too, and then I can give talks in [all these] different countries. The goal of my book is to inspire people to have happier lives.



What is the strength of South Africa’s women according to you? I have always found South African women to be strong, confident and fun. I miss their sense of humor. They just need to support each other, and the men need to support women so they can advance, because when women advance, the country does better.

Musk_1976_Maye__Elon__Kimbal__Tosca_rt-(1)

‘I Am Just Getting Started’: Maye Musk On Her New Book, Modeling, Mars And Her ‘Genius Boy’ Elon

Elon Musk&#8217;s meteoric rise up the Forbes Billionaire List has continued this month, as he’s ascended past luminaries such as Warren Buffett and Steve Ballmer. As of Monday afternoon, Musk&#8217;s net worth surpassed <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#11a0831e3d78">$74 billion</a>, meaning he is now the fifth-richest person on the planet.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Musk, 49, is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, the electric vehicle company whose stock price has soared since March.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Tesla shares gained another 9.5% in Monday&#8217;s trading to $1,643.00, giving it a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/20/cramer-says-moves-in-tech-stocks-are-truly-insane-as-amazon-and-tesla-climb.html" target="_blank">60%</a> rise in just three weeks since June 29, and a nearly 300% increase in 2020 alone.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Tesla is now not only the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">world&#8217;s most valuable car company</a>, with a market cap of $304.5 billion, it’s worth more than Ford, Ferrari, General Motors and BMW <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">combined</a>.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk was ranked <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/"> No. 31</a> on Forbes&#8217; Billionaires List as recently as mid-March, with a net worth just under $25 billion.</li></ul>



<ul><li>His fortune has nearly tripled since then, skyrocketing to $74.2 billion at the close of trading Monday, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#11a0831e3d78">Forbes calculates.</a></li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half his stake as collateral for loans; Forbes has discounted his stake to take the loans into account.</li></ul>



KEY BACKGROUND: 



Musk first debuted on Forbes’ 400 Wealthiest Americans List in 2012 in 190th place with a net worth of $2.4 billion. On January 1 this year, he was the 37th richest person on earth. However, Tesla&#8217;s sudden and spectacular rise has propelled him near the very top of the world&#8217;s wealthiest humans. Tesla&#8217;s surge has confounded some investors, considering it’s far smaller than its competitors and only recently began to log quarterly profits. Tesla produced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">103,000 vehicles</a>&nbsp;in the first quarter; Toyota produced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">2.4 million vehicles</a>&nbsp;during that same period. In 2019, American automakers General Motors and Ford generated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danrunkevicius/2020/07/20/tesla-stock-may-be-rallying-for-this-absurd-reasonand-this-wont-end-well/#794f313f67a6">ten times</a>&nbsp;more sales than Tesla. Late last month, analysts from Morgan Stanley warned that Tesla stock, which was trading at roughly $1,000 per share at that time, was &#8220;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/23/tesla-is-overvalued-investors-are-treating-it-too-much-like-a-tech-company-says-morgan-stanley/#15e075f96c74">grossly overvalued</a>&nbsp;and set to plunge.&#8221; Earlier this month, Musk said that Tesla would produce virtually fully autonomous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/07/09/elon-musk-tesla-will-have-level-5-self-driving-cars-this-year/#1942918a2d1d">self-driving vehicles</a>&nbsp;by the end of 2020, a claim that was met with skepticism by an auto industry accustomed to a heaping of hype from Musk on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/tesla-autopilot-germany.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">capabilities of self-driving technology</a>. Musk has not sold shares of Tesla&nbsp;<a href="http://sites/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since 2010</a>.



CRITICAL QUOTES:



&#8220;I really couldn&#8217;t care less,&#8221; Musk emailed Forbes about his net worth earlier this month. &#8220;These numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.&#8221;



&#8220;Moves like we are seeing in Microsoft and Tesla and Amazon are truly insane and unlike any i have ever seen in my life,&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jimcramer/status/1285293615019888640?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;analyst Jim Cramer on Monday afternoon. When asked if Tesla was a &#8216;Covid Stock,&#8217; Cramer&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jimcramer/status/1285310934114861057?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">replied</a>, &#8220;i don&#8217;t even know if it is a stock. it is something else entirely, like a new species discovered in the wild.&#8221;&nbsp;



TANGENT:



When Kanye West<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2020/07/08/kanye-west-says-hes-done-with-trump-opens-up-about-white-house-bid-damaging-biden-and-everything-in-between/#4597b0a647aa"> initially announced</a> that he was running for president, he said he had the &#8220;full support&#8221; of Musk, a longtime close friend. In a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/11/elon-musk-backpedals-on-support-of-kanye-wests-presidential-bid/" target="_blank">since-deleted tweet</a>, Musk responded, &#8220;We may have more differences of opinion than I anticipated.&#8221; However, Musk later told <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/" target="_blank">Page Six</a>, &#8220;Kanye explained afterward some of the reasoning behind why he said what he said. It makes more sense than many people, including me, realized.&#8221; On July Fourth, Musk <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, &#8220;You have my full support!&#8221;



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/">Tommy Beer</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

Elon Musk Is Now The Fifth Richest Person In The World

It’s not just Amazon stock that has boosted the fortunes of its billionaire backer. Dramatic changes in the share prices of Tesla, Reliance and Microsoft have reshuffled the ranks of the top ten richest in the world since March.



 Between last Friday afternoon after markets closed and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos’ net worth fell by $8 billion. That’s a huge sum — the combined value of the NFL’s New England Patriots ($4.1 billion) and the New York Giants ($3.9 billion). But for Bezos, who’s worth about $181 billion, it was just a routine couple of days on the job —and a 4.4% decline in his fortune.



Since March 18, the date that Forbes used to calculate net worths for the 2020 World’s Billionaires list, and days after the President declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus, Amazon’s stock price has soared nearly 69%. As shoppers who sheltered at home during the pandemic turned to Amazon for ordering more purchases, its market cap reached a record $1.5 trillion, and Bezos’ fortune jumped $68 billion. Even with the slight downtick in the last two days, investors aren’t worried – mostly chalking it up to portfolio rebalancing, or momentum stocks retreating a bit after a strong run.



Bezos is not the only billionaire to get much richer during the pandemic. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has gone from No. 31 wealthiest in the world in mid-March to No. 9 as of Tuesday. His net worth has nearly tripled in the last four months, to $69.1 billion from $24.6 billion, largely due to a massive 320% rally in Tesla’s stock. It’s the first time Musk ranks among the world’s top ten richest. “I really couldn’t care less,” Musk told Forbes in early July, commenting on the size of his fortune. “Those numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.”



Another big gainer of the past several months is Mukesh Ambani, an Indian business magnate and chairman of Reliance Industries, whose telecom firm Reliance Jio has attracted billions of dollars in investments in 2020, including $5.7 billion from Facebook in April and $1.2 billion from U.A.E.’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala in June. On July 15 Google confirmed it would invest $4.5 billion in Jio. That, in turn, has helped lead to a surge in the share price of Reliance. Ambani is now the seventh richest person in the world, worth $71.4 billion, nearly twice his net worth in mid-March. The last time Ambani was in the top 10 was in 2011, with a $27 billion fortune.



Also new to the top ten since March: Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. Microsoft stock is up a striking 47% since mid March, landing Ballmer at the world’s No. 6 richest, worth $72.1 billion.



Whiplash 2020: Shakeup Among Top 10



Musk and Ballmer join the ​upper echelon, while Buffett falls to his lowest rank in at least 20 years.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png" alt="" class="wp-image-46513" width="686" height="664" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png 592w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires-300x290.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px" /></figure>



Of course, as some climb up the ranks, others must go down – and some go up and down a lot. Bernard Arnault was worth $108 billion in late January. He fell to $76 billion in mid March, as people worried about spending on luxury goods. He is back up to $111.1 billion, and number three in the world.



Despite only a $3.5 billion drop in his net worth since March, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, is down four spots and now the eighth richest person in the world. It’s the lowest Buffett has ranked in at least 20 years. The Waltons, the family behind Walmart, had three members – Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton – who rounded out the top ten in mid-March. While their net worths on Tuesday were actually up $3 billion, those increases were not enough for them to hold onto their spots as others including Musk, Ambani and Ballmer surged ahead.



The only certainty with markets like this is that billions can be gained – and lost – and regained in a matter of hours.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/">Angel Au-Yeung</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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Why Jeff Bezos Lost $8 Billion In The Last 2 Days – And Why That’s Not A Big Deal

Tesla vehicles could soon be completely autonomous as CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle firm is “very close” to achieving level 5 autonomous driving technology, during a virtual appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>“I’m extremely confident that level 5 or essentially complete autonomy will happen and I think will happen very quickly,” Musk said.</li></ul>



<ul><li>He added that he is confident “basic functionality” for level 5 complete autonomy will be achieved this year.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The technology will allow vehicles to drive on roads without driver input.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Tesla, the world’s highest-valued carmaker after overtaking Toyota last week, already <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot" target="_blank">operates</a> an Autopilot system that uses external cameras, radars and sensors, but it is driver assisted and does not make the vehicle autonomous.</li></ul>



KEY BACKGROUND



Tech firms, including Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo, have pumped billions into developing self-driving cars, a futuristic idea that many had predicted would be ready by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/14/21063487/self-driving-cars-autonomous-vehicles-waymo-cruise-uber" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this year</a>. But limitations around AI have stalled development of the technology. Last month, Waymo and Volvo announced they were teaming up to develop driverless cars for ride-hailing use.



TANGENT



In February, the National Transportation Safety Board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/business/tesla-autopilot-ntsb.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;Tesla&#8217;s autopilot driver assistance was likely to blame for a fatal 2018 crash in California, leading to the board calling for more regulation of the technology, and for the company to better educate drivers on its limitations.



ADDITIONAL INFO



The road to completely autonomous driving has five levels: Level 0 describes no automation i.e. everyday cars. Level 1 represents features such as adaptive cruise control, while level 2 describes partial automation features that control speed and steering, such as those seen in Tesla vehicles. Level 3 and 4 represent limited driverless capabilities. Level 5 is the point at which a driverless vehicle can navigate all road conditions without human input, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://the5levelsofautonomousvehicles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">True Car</a>.

Tesla Vehicles Could Soon Become Completely Autonomous As Self-Driving Tech ‘Very Close’, Elon Musk Says

After years of hints, Kanye West formally announced he is running for president this year in a challenge to Trump, who he once supported, and Democratic rival Joe Biden, winning support from his friend and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Rounding off his Fourth of July, West <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1279575273365594112?s=20" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Saturday night: “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1279577069005897728?s=20" target="_blank"> tweeted</a> in response: “You have my full support!”</li></ul>



<ul><li>Wife Kim Kardashian also publicly pledged her support, retweeting West’s statement and adding a U.S. flag <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1279597399380332544?s=20" target="_blank">emoji</a>.</li></ul>



<ul><li>West’s announcement follows years of hints that he would run for office this year which he later postponed to 2024, after publicly declaring at a Fast Company event in 2019: “When I run for president in 2024&#8230;We would create so many jobs! I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>But the rapper, who recently <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/06/28/kanye-west-gives-gap-a-ten-year-lifeline-with-yeezy-partnership-and-gets-what-he-always-wanted/#3db3d12e3dde">inked</a> a 10-year deal with Gap through his Yeezy brand, is reportedly yet to file any paperwork to get on state election ballots, while he has missed the deadline for states including Texas, New York, and Indiana.</li></ul>



<ul><li>It is not known how serious West’s intentions are this time around, however, he still has time to <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ballotpedia.org/Important_dates_in_the_2020_presidential_race" target="_blank">file</a> as an independent candidate across most states, according to Ballotpedia.</li></ul>



<ul><li>West’s declaration was met with skepticism on social media, while some commentators pointed out that it could work out in Trump’s favour.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Kanye West went from endorsing Trump to claiming he’d run against him —an announcement that benefits the president to the degree it spotlights Biden’s need for black voters &amp; his potential weakness with young voters <a href="https://t.co/0m4PUO6s6a">https://t.co/0m4PUO6s6a</a>&mdash; Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcACaputo/status/1279589464491376642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Kanye West isn’t really gonna run for President, but his next album will be called Presidential Dropout&mdash; David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) <a href="https://twitter.com/byDavidGardner/status/1279585706432659457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



KEY BACKGROUND



West’s declaration suggests the rapper is looking to cement political ambitions he has expressed throughout Trump’s presidency. West previously forged alliances with Trump, and was pictured in the Oval Office in 2018 wearing a signature Trump ‘Make America Great Again’ cap. He once called the president his “brother” and previously hit back at criticism towards his support for Trump, likening the backlash to racial discrimination. Although he says he didn’t vote in 2016, West later said he “would have voted for Trump”, and earlier this year doubled down, suggesting he would vote for him in November. But that could very well change given Saturday’s announcement.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="456" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46417" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1-300x230.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>American rapper and producer Kanye West embraces real estate developer and US President Donald Trump in the White House&#8217;s Oval Office, Washington DC, October 11, 2018. West wears a red baseball cap that reads &#8216;Make America Great Again,&#8217; Trump&#8217;s campaign slogan. (Photo by Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



TANGENT



West and Musk were <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1278353774671802369?s=20" target="_blank">pictured together</a> on July 1st, with West tweeting: “When you go to your boys [sic] house and you’re both wearing orange.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1278353774671802369?s=20
</div></figure>



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian Endorse Kanye West Running For President

Elon Musk has achieved remarkable and unexpected things with Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla">TSLA</a>&nbsp;in the 16 years since his electric-car maker debuted its first prototype. Add to that list the likelihood the billionaire entrepreneur is closing in on the last requirements to win a stock jackpot worth $600 million or more–in the middle of what’s shaping up to be the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.&nbsp;



Six weeks ago, with U.S. stock indices and Tesla shares plunging as the scope of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the odds Musk would achieve the first tranche of his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/03/10/elon-musks-drive-to-55-billion-tesla-payday-slowed-by-covid-19-stock-slide/#36ff7fd14256">12-part $55 billion compensation package</a>&nbsp;looked slim. Yet&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;now estimates the stock’s 100% rebound from a recent low-point on March 18 has Tesla on track to hit both six-month and 30-day market cap averages of $100 billion in early May. Once that happens, the company’s board would award Musk 1.69 million Tesla shares that, factoring in an exercise price of $350.02 share, would have a net value of at least $600 million. Tesla’s rebound far outpaced the 18% increase in the S&amp;P 500 and GM’s 30% rise since March 18.



Musk’s compensation package runs through 2028 and was unveiled more than two years ago, well before the current health crisis. A review of it by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/dealbook/tesla-elon-musk-pay.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=business&amp;region=rank&amp;module=package&amp;version=highlights&amp;contentPlacement=1&amp;pgtype=sectionfront" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New York Times</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/new-york-times">NYT</a>&nbsp;in January 2018 called it the “boldest pay plan in corporate history.” Never one to think small, Musk told the paper: “I actually see the potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar company within a 10-year period.”



Certainly, the timing of the award is awkward. Tesla’s South African-born CEO and cofounder, with a net worth&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/#1e07bc1a7999">$40 billion</a>&nbsp;as of April 27, would be getting the biggest payday of his life at a time of widespread economic turmoil and job loss across the U.S. and major developed economies. More than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/04/25/the-coronavirus-will-explode-the-federal-deficit-and-debt/#77a2ac577ef7">26 million Americans have filed unemployment claims</a>&nbsp;in the past six weeks of the coronavirus shutdown, which in turn appears likely to trigger a recession and a continued, unprecedented level of Federal spending. Tesla itself&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/04/08/tesla-plans-pay-cuts-and-worker-furloughs-as-covid-19-shutdown-drags-on/#2180ce4e6675">implemented&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/04/08/tesla-plans-pay-cuts-and-worker-furloughs-as-covid-19-shutdown-drags-on/#2180ce4e6675">across-the-board pay cuts for all employees and furloughed thousands of U.S. factory workers</a>.



“This is like Marie Antoinette telling the peasants&nbsp;to eat cake if there is no bread. Still, Musk has never been troubled about appearances and may feel that he earned it,” says&nbsp;Columbia Law School Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/john-c-coffee-jr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Coffee</a>.



The electric-car maker’s shares rose 10% to $798.75&nbsp;in Nasdaq&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nasdaq">NDAQ</a>&nbsp;trading Monday, boosting its market cap to $147 billion. The daily increase boosted Musk’s wealth by $2.6 billion, the biggest gain among&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#5c956a2a3d78">billionaires tracked by&nbsp;Forbes</a>.



Tesla’s average market capitalization is $95.5 billion, from Oct. 25, 2019, through April 24, based on data from S&amp;P Global Capital IQ. The Palo Alto, California-based company’s 30-day average market cap is $104 billion. If the share price stays at its trailing 10-day average of $718.57 for eight more sessions, the six-month average market cap would be achieved by the trading close on May 6.



A&nbsp;Delaware judge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-pay/delaware-judge-says-tesla-board-must-face-trial-over-musks-mega-pay-package-idUSKBN1W52KF" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruled in September</a>&nbsp;that Tesla’s board must defend Musk’s compensation package in a suit brought by a shareholder. Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights of the Delaware Court of Chancery rebuffed Tesla’s request to dismiss the lawsuit by shareholder Richard Tornetta, which says it unjustly enriched Musk.



Tesla reports first-quarter earnings on April 29, after the close of regular market trading. If it tops consensus expectations, which Barclays equity analyst Brian Johnson sees as a possibility, that could propel the stock even higher.&nbsp;



“While consensus has drifted down to a 32c loss for 1Q, no doubt due to lower than ingoing deliveries and the likely ramp costs in China, we would not rule out a non-GAAP profit for 1Q20, which (on top of the recent stock price rise) would add further fuel to the bull narrative that Tesla is set to dominate global automaking,” Johnson said in a recent report. He also noted that Musk would likely achieve the performance target in early May, increasing the odds of a new fundraising round by Tesla in the weeks ahead. Johnson estimates Tesla will report adjusted earnings per share of 61 cents for the quarter that ended on March 31.



Currently, Tesla’s main U.S. auto plant in Fremont, California, is idle owing to the coronavirus shutdown, though its new Gigafactory in Shanghai that opened in January is ramping up production of Model 3 sedans. The company, which briefly defied a local ordinance in Fremont to stop making cars last month, may call some workers back as early as April 29,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-25/tesla-is-calling-some-california-plant-workers-back-next-week" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a>.&nbsp;Tesla has told employees it wants to restart production at Fremont by May 4.



Much larger payouts to Musk will come in the form of 11 additional awards of 1.69 million Tesla shares, assuming he meets ever-larger <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ir.tesla.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tesla-announces-new-long-term-performance-award-elon-musk?ReleaseID=1054948" target="_blank">targets for market cap, revenue and adjusted profit through 2028</a>. If he falls short in a particular period, he gets nothing. To receive the maximum payout of 20.3 million shares, Tesla’s market cap must hit $650 billion, more than five times the current level. Annual revenue from Tesla’s electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has to be $175 billion, with adjusted earnings of $14 billion. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="713" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tesla.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44730" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tesla.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tesla-300x223.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tesla-600x446.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tesla-768x570.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption>Tesla</figcaption></figure>



Tesla said in its&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/07bfcb70-aba1-4a27-af09-4f101678320c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">annual report</a>&nbsp;on Feb. 13 that Musk fulfilled “two operational milestones,” with annual revenue of $24.6 billion in 2019 and annual adjusted pre-tax earnings of at least $1.5 billion. At that time, “no market capitalization milestones have been achieved,” the company said.



It’s not a problem that the market cap goals are likely to occur months after a fiscal year, Tesla said in a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/55362f0a-ee8a-4fcc-ba11-cc09194974b6" target="_blank">2018 SEC filing</a>. “A Market Capitalization Milestone and an Operational Milestone that are matched together can be achieved at different points in time and vesting will occur at the later of the achievement certification dates for such Market Capitalization Milestone and Operational Milestone.” 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/">Alan Ohnsman</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/transportation">Transportation</a>

gettyimages-490597796-594×594

Elon Musk May Bank The Biggest Payday Of His Life During Global Pandemic

&nbsp;Amazon is joining Walmart in pointing the finger at Tesla solar panels for fires on the roofs of their facilities in what is yet another hiccup for Tesla’s embattled solar business.



<ul><li>Amazon said Tesla solar panels caught fire in June 2018 at one of its warehouses in Redlands, California.</li><li>Amazon’s disclosure comes days after Walmart sued Tesla for breach of contract and gross negligence after seven stores experienced roof fires allegedly caused by faulty Tesla solar panels. Both companies later said they are working together to “addressing all issues.”</li><li>Amazon said it would not install any more Tesla panels.</li></ul>



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In a statement to&nbsp;Forbes,&nbsp;a Tesla spokesperson said in an email that the Amazon fire was an “isolated event” at one of 11 Amazon sites with solar panels.



“Tesla worked collaboratively with Amazon to root cause the event and remediate. We also performed inspections at the other sites, which confirmed the integrity of the systems. As with all of our commercial solar installations, we continue to proactively monitor the systems to ensure they operate safely and reliably,” the statement continues.



Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla did not respond when Forbes asked whether the company has plans for broader inspections of both commercial and residential solar power installations.



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According to a Business Insider report, Tesla was aware of problems related to its solar panels. In the summer of 2018, around the same time as the Amazon fire, Tesla launched a secret internal project called Project Titan to replace what the company said were faulty “connectors” manufactured by Connecticut-based Amphenol, according to the report.



Key Background: Tesla’s embattled solar business has been plagued by plunging sales, production delays and layoffs since CEO Elon Musk acquired solar company SolarCity for $2.6 billion in 2016.



Musk hasn’t tweeted about the Walmart or Amazon complaints, but instead announced a revamped pricing plan in an effort to boost the slowing solar panel business. The new pricing model allows residents in six states to rent solar power systems starting at $50 a month ($65 a month in California) instead of buying them up front.



-Rachel Sandler; Forbes

gettyimages-534234582-594×594

Amazon Is The Second Company To Report Tesla Solar Panel Fire

Topline: Walmart is alleging in a lawsuit that Tesla solar panels caused fires on the roofs of seven Walmart stores, and is accusing Tesla of breach of contract, gross negligence and failure to comply with industry standards.&nbsp;



<ul><li>Walmart claims that Tesla installed faulty solar panels that eventually spontaneously combusted and caught fire at seven Walmart stores around the country.</li><li>The lawsuit alleges that Tesla inspectors didn’t notice defects that were visible to the naked eye, used cable connectors that weren’t compatible with one another and failed to see that loose and hanging wires were present at multiple sites.</li></ul>



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<ul><li>Walmart says in the lawsuit it believes the failures were the result of rushed installation because Tesla’s solar division “adopted an ill-considered business model that required it to install solar panel systems haphazardly and as quickly as possible in order to turn a profit, and the contractors and subcontractors who performed the original installation work had not been properly hired, trained, and supervised.”</li></ul>



Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes.







Key Background: Tesla got into the solar business after it acquired SolarCity in 2016 for $2.6 billion. But production of its residential solar panels under Tesla has been mired with delays and plunging sales.&nbsp;



Just this week, CEO Elon Musk announced a revamped pricing plan in an effort to boost the slowing business. The new pricing model allows residents in six states to rent solar power systems starting at $50 a month ($65 a month in California) instead of buying them up front.



Further Reading: Read the full lawsuit&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/40v40ia2y/supreme-court-of-the-state-of-new-york-new-york-county/walmart-inc-fka-walmart-stores-inc-v-tesla-energy-operations-inc-fka-soalrcity-cor/" target="_blank">here</a>.



-Rachel Sandler, Forbes



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READ MORE:



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Tesla’s secret formula

Walmart Sues Tesla Over Solar Panels That Allegedly Caught Fire

From waste to wealth, circular economic models go beyond the
‘take-make-dispose’ principle to ensure more sustainable supply chains and
products that have a second life.



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



The traditional economy is built on the idea of “take, make,
dispose”. It’s linear, economically inefficient and unsustainable. But in a
circular economy, companies look to take end-of-life products and push them
back into the economy as a resource. 



It’s a circular economic model that aims to keep resources
in use for as long as possible, to extract the maximum value from them while in
use, and to recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of their
service life.



“So you’re continually using these resources and not using the planet’s finite resources,” explains Kirstie McIntyre, Global Director for HP Inc.’s social and environmental responsibility operations. 



McIntyre is also a founding member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a global organization focused on promoting the concept of a circular economy.



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“There are some big challenges in sustainability. There are
challenges now, and they will be more acute in the future,” McIntyre says. “It
also means companies need to question and innovate in fundamental ways. This
isn’t just about a little bit of recycling.”



Circular economy theory questions how we can maintain a
thriving economy within the limits of the planet, taking both resource
depletion and climate change into account. 



“When you work in sustainability, it can be quite
depressing. There are plenty of smart people doing space exploration; Elon Musk
is one of them. But I don’t think we can afford to wait for Elon Musk to find
another planet for us to pull resources from, I think we’ve got to get on with
this now, ourselves,” adds McIntyre. 



HP’s framework revolves around doing more with less. It’s about moving away from simply recycling and into a functional circular economy. And it’s more than eco-printing for a “forest-friendly” future where more trees are planted than are cut down to enable printing operations.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“There are big sustainability issues in front of us. We have a large responsibility because we’re leaders in our industry. It’s about ensuring our products, where possible, have a second life. When that’s not possible, they’re taken apart so we can use the components,” says McIntyre. </blockquote>



Innovations that matter are innovations that have a positive
impact. HP is just one of many companies working towards the idea of a circular
economy; in 2018, trans-national consumer goods company Unilever revealed that
its sustainable brands grew 46% faster than the rest of the business,
delivering 70% of its sales growth. 



Caroline Laurie is the Head of Sustainability at Kingfisher.
In a digital-first world where transparency and provenance are becoming
increasingly prevalent, Laurie believes that businesses can actually benefit
from becoming more sustainable. 



“Sustainability drives you to think differently about your
business. Customers’ expectations of big business are getting higher, yet their
trust in big business is getting lower. You’ll very rarely find consumers
making a choice between two products. But what they want to know is that you’ve
made that choice for them. It is often about range editing. Customers want to
trust in brands to do the right thing,” explains Laurie.



In other words, sustainability done right brings consumer
trust, and with it business, commercial, social, and environmental benefits.



“None of us can solve these issues on our own in isolation. This is about complete value chain re-engineering. This isn’t about philanthropy anymore, it’s about real commercial sense,” ends Laurie.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="617" height="617" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41213" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png.png 617w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png-300x300.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png-100x100.png 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png-600x600.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png-150x150.png 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Caroline.png-80x80.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 617px) 100vw, 617px" /><figcaption> Caroline Laurie &#8211; Head of Sustainability at Kingfisher. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">The war on plastic straws</h4>



Coffee shops are turning to glass and paper as alternative
sipping options, with some restaurants even offering tubes of pasta as an
alternative, more sustainable solution to the traditional plastic drinking
straw. There’s a war on plastic straws, and it is the start of both companies
and consumers becoming more conscious of the use, reuse, recyclability and
disposal of plastics… but is our focus wrong?



“Customers rarely understand the relative environmental impact of different types of materials,” says Andrew Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Yuppiechef, the kitchen-focused e-commerce website. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“They believe plastic is bad and paper is good, but this is not always true. Plastic is often recyclable and can have very little environmental impact.”</blockquote>



Moving away from single-use plastic – and applying the principles of the circular economy – the New Plastics Economy initiative was formed towards the end of 2018 with the over-arching goal that plastics never become waste. The organization believes that instead they should re-enter the economy as part of products made from recycled plastic material wherever possible.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Digital twins?</h4>



Technology has a massive role to play in creating a greener
supply chain. For many, this means the use of artificial intelligence (AI),
virtual reality (VR), and digital twins. A ‘digital twin’ is a 1:1 digital copy
of a product, process or service, used to provide deep technical training on a
device or service without requiring a physical representation of said device or
service. According to research and advisory company Gartner, 50% of large
industrial companies will use digital twins by 2021.



Jason Ried is the Founder and Managing Director of Fuzzy
Logic, an innovative software development company based in South Africa’s
Western Cape province that has created digital twins of large machinery for
mines and automotive and healthcare companies.



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“Using augmented reality solutions on mobile devices or
headsets (like Microsoft HoloLens), we allow users to &#8216;see&#8217; a digital
representation of the machinery they’re being trained on as if it was really
there,” explains Ried. 



“Users can get a sense of the scale and design without
needing the real thing in front of them. They are able to assemble and
disassemble the machine as many times as required to fully learn its
intricacies, while each action is digitally tracked and stored, allowing
management to understand how well each user performed.” 



From a sustainability point of view, there are major
benefits in the creation and use of ‘digital twins’ in business: not only do
digital twins save time and money, they enhance learning by increasing the
quality of training and retained knowledge. 



Once digital twins are integrated into business workflows,
companies like Fuzzy Logic can further enhance productivity by overlaying
digital data onto physical objects.



“Users might, for instance, see steps to repair a part,
while info like current temperature and pressure display alongside the machine,
updating in real time as users interact with it. This strengthens the link
between digital and physical objects,” he says.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="405" height="529" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jason.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41214" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jason.png.png 405w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jason.png-300x392.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jason.png-230x300.png 230w" sizes="(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" /><figcaption> Jason Ried the Founder and Managing Director of Fuzzy Logic. Picture: Supplied </figcaption></figure></div>



Ultimately, the concept of a circular economy is about doing
more, with less. Gartner’s Managing Vice President, Steven Steutermann, says it
best:



“The goal is to deliver customer value with minimal waste,” Steutermann says. “For such a system to be efficient, it must be automated, and this is where the previous factors come into play. Using technologies such as digital twins and AI in an automated fashion enables the supply chain to execute against circular economy principles by acting on its own and ultimately becoming its own ecosystem.”



-Tiana Cline

Circular

Circular Economy: Doing More With Less

From the Caribbean to the South African coast, marine&nbsp; archaeologist Matthew Arnett’s work involves recovering treasures from the deep – and preserving them for posterity.



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



I have a pet peeve with people like Elon Musk who want to
jet off to space,” remarks Matthew Arnett, who has made it his business to
explore the depths of the world’s oceans.



“I would think 99% of the sea is left unexplored. I believe
there are answers there that come from energy and renewable resources. There is
a twilight zone that we don’t even know is there, and they want to go to
Mars!”&nbsp; 



&nbsp;It is the planet we are in that Arnett, the co-founder and CEO of PO8, has made his priority, uncovering treasures that date as far back as the 1400s. 



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“Millions should be spent under the ocean instead of jetting
off to space so quick. There are many aspects of the blue economy that have not
been explored and there are so many opportunities that come out of it,” says
the explorer who is based in the Caribbean and visiting South Africa.



PO8 is a marine archaeology startup that uses blockchain
technology to recover sunken artifacts from the ocean floor. 



Using the blockchain model, through PO8, ownership of the
recovered treasures and artifacts is with non-fungible tokens, which are
asset-backed tokens. 



Arnett says the sensitive, more lucrative approach is preserving these artifacts in museums and not giving them away to private collectors. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“They [the artifacts] have to stay in the public domain and that is why there are the museums.” </blockquote>



With innovative ways of looking at the blue economy, the PO8
project, based in the Caribbean, also aims to connect lost histories across the
globe. 



The growing historical tourism market in the Caribbean
generates revenue without selling any of the recovered artifacts, leading to
social and economic impact that he says can be duplicated in Africa. 



“Because of the success in the Caribbean, it only makes
sense to come back to Africa to put the same model in place. 



“There are millions and billions of dollars in the ocean,”
Arnett says. 



“We are going to find other things that relate back to
Africa, so we might also be able to find some missing links from an
anthropology stand point.”&nbsp; 



He believes his work contributes to transforming the narrative of the Caribbean that’s often only known for tourism. “When you look at the Caribbean, it is no longer just sun, sand and sea; there is a tech tsunami that is coming,” he says. 



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“I am from an island known for pirates. There is a pirate
who was able to withstand the British government for 31 years while the British
government controlled other parts of the Bahamas. He used the Bahamas as his
treasure chest… and that blood is soaked in the soil; that is out of which I am
born. I was raised with these stories of piracy.” 



&nbsp;As Arnett taps into
new knowledge systems, he believes that there is value in ensuring that all
have access to his findings. 



“These artifacts are open to anthropologists,
archaeologists, or to university programs all over the world to come to the
Bahamas and study these objects to draw parallels between other pieces and
artifacts that might be similar to them. Essentially, we are telling the story
of our past in a way that it can be globally accepted and people can own a part
of history.”

Tag: Elon Musk

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA