SA-born entrepreneur Elon Musk earns $8bn (R136bn) in one day

South African-born Elon Musk, co-founder of the electric carmaker Tesla, is now the world's fourth richest person, behind Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Bloomberg reports that a surge in Tesla shares boosted Musk's net worth by $7.8 billion, making his fortune worth $84.8 billion. To put that in perspective, South Africa's GDP (all the money spent in this country in a year) is $350 billion, meaning that Musk is now worth about a quarter of the wealth of his former home country. Musk's company overtook Toyota as the world's most valuable automaker back in July, making Monday's Tesla rally the latest triumph for the billionaire who only two years ago was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and had to resign as Tesla chairman over rogue tweets. – Renee Moodie

Elon Musk gains $8 billion to become world's fourth-richest person

By Devon Pendleton

(Bloomberg) – Elon Musk's financial upswing shows no signs of slowing.

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