Tesla remains Musk’s best-known business, but its fortunes are less directly tied to the government than SpaceX, his rocket-building company.

Still, Musk remains the richest person on the planet with an estimated total net worth of $342 billion as of Sunday, June 8, according to their index. He is followed by Mark Zuckerberg with $246 billion; Jeff Bezos with $234 billion; Larry Ellison with $196 billion; and Bill Gates with $176 billion.

There's an old saying that the easiest way to make a billion dollars is to start off with a million dollars. It doesn't apply to every billionaire, but it partly explains why both Elon Musk