Yahoo Finance Elon Musk Is No Longer the Richest Man in the World: Experts Explain How He Can Reclaim the Position
Earlier in 2024, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was bumped out of the No. 1 “richest person” spot by French fashion magnate Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes. Currently, Musk is worth about $195 billion while Arnault reigns supreme at $233 billion.
After $1 billion, does it really matter how many more billions the wealthiest people on the planet amass? To the average person, probably not, but to these power players, being top dog comes with status and the ability to make changes the average person could only dream of.
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Musk’s billions have been negatively impacted by his takeover of Twitter (now X), whose value has plummeted since he took the helm, and Tesla’s falling shares, perhaps in light of its much-scorned new Cybertruck.
What could Musk do to reclaim his seat at the top of the billionaire heap? Experts offer their theories.
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Brain Chips for All
According to Neal Shah — a neurotech expert, the CEO of health tech startup CareYaya and a former hedge fund manager — one pathway to Musk reclaiming his “richest person” status may be through his company Neuralink. The company is developing brain chip implants to enable people to connect, cyborg-like, to their devices, as well as support areas of brain disease. A test subject has already been fitted with a chip, in fact.
The neurotech market will rapidly become worth $1 trillion over the next decade, he explained, because brain-computer interfaces are the next phase of tech.
In addition to nonessential needs, like connecting your brain to your smartphone with a thought, Neuralink’s implantable neurotechnology has many potential applications, according to Shah.
“With the world’s rapidly aging population, and skyrocketing rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s, along with ALS and other neurological disorders, there is going to be a trillion-dollar market for brain disorders. The dementia population alone is going to grow from 50 million to 150 million in the next two decades,” he said.
Combined with the rapid improvement in implantable neurotechnology, Shah believes Neuralink could easily become a $100 billion-plus company.
“The neurotech sector is in the early innings, just like electric cars were in 2008 in the early days of Tesla,” he said.
If Elon Musk continues to pour resources into Neuralink, Shah believes it will hold a dominant leadership position in implantable neurotech and let him regain the title of “richest person.”
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Banking On Tesla
If Musk has any hope of regaining his reign, according to Abid Salahi, co-founder of FinlyWealth, a credit card recommendation platform, Tesla is the ticket. This is because the company’s market cap is “intrinsically linked to Musk’s wealth, given his substantial ownership stake,” Salahi said.
“A surge in Tesla’s valuation, fueled by increased vehicle deliveries, advancements in autonomous driving technology or expansion into new markets, could significantly boost Musk’s net worth,” he said.
Of course, given Tesla’s poor performance of late, it’s hard to see how this could come to pass immediately.
To the Stars and Beyond
Another area of improvement, Salahi said, is through SpaceX, Musk’s “ace in the hole.”
SpaceX has already made initial contracts with NASA, and further lucrative government contracts could clinch the company’s value.
“[Even] a groundbreaking space tourism venture could send SpaceX’s valuation soaring. This would exponentially increase Musk’s wealth, as SpaceX is valued at over $100 billion,” Salahi said.
Monetizing X
Musk’s purchase of Twitter and renaming it to X has been little more than a financial drain on the company, Salahi said.
However, he pointed out that “monetizing X effectively through advertising, subscriptions or other revenue streams could turn it into a cash cow. This would directly benefit Musk’s finances and improve investor sentiment towards his ventures.”
Musk might first have to prove to the many users who jumped ship when he took it over that it’s a place worth returning to.
Leveraging Innovation
Salahi also suggested that Musk’s penchant for innovation could be his trump card, since new ventures in artificial intelligence, renewable energy or even neurotechnology could create new revenue streams and valuations, catapulting his net worth beyond current estimates.
“Elon Musk is not one to shy away from bold moves. He could potentially leverage a combination of these strategies or even unveil an entirely new venture to reclaim his title as the world’s wealthiest individual,” Salahi said.
Green Energy Initiatives
Though Tesla seems, at times, to be a vanity project for Musk, he has expressed serious commitment to sustainability for the future and is on record stating that he sees Tesla as an energy company, not just an electric vehicle company.
Thus, according to Adam Garcia, financial expert and founder of The Stock Dork, “With his dominating position in renewable energy, Musk can easily invest or initiate projects in any trending arena of green energy solutions that may gain huge interest in investments globally.”
As climate change continues to wreak havoc, a billionaire like Musk can become ever more valuable to society’s changing needs.
While the average person isn’t going to lose sleep over whether Elon Musk becomes the richest person in the world again, if Musk can utilize his billions for the good of humanity, he might just find more people rooting for him.
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