As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, economies crumbled, and businesses struggled to stay afloat. But somehow, amidst all the chaos and uncertainty, one man managed to not only weather the storm but actually thrive.

Yes, you guessed it right. It’s the one and only; Elon Musk. While you were hunkering down at home, trying not to kill your roommates, Musk was busy raking in the dough and solidifying his status as one of the world’s wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs.

But how did he do it? How did he manage to come out on top during one of the most challenging times in recent history? Let’s dive in and find out!

Elon’s Pre-Pandemic Situation

But before we dig deep into it, better take a look at Elon’s pre-pandemic status. As the lockdown wasn’t the only period he dominated, Musk was already on his way to becoming number one.

Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, were making headlines with their innovative products and technologies, even before the pandemic’s arrival. But keep in mind, things weren’t always the same for Elon; he has had his fair share of struggles and setbacks over the years. And he worked his ass off to get where he is today.

His company, SpaceX had a ton of rockets blow up on the launchpad (no big deal) before finally achieving its first successful launch in 2008. And Tesla also faced a lot of financial struggles and production delays. But he managed to overcome these challenges and become a top player in the electric vehicle game.

So Elon Musk was already doing pretty darn well for himself before the pandemic hit, and he’s only continued to kill it since then. Just when the pandemic hit, his net worth was already around $25 billion.

That was the reason the pandemic didn’t slow down Musk. If anything, it only made him stronger. The pandemic further solidified his financial standing and cemented his status as a business mogul to be reckoned with.

Elon’s Secrets to Success

Well, there aren’t any secrets behind his success. But there are indeed a few things that set him apart from others. Here we’ll discuss these things in detail:

Tesla’s Stock Price Boom

The main force behind Elon’s massive wealth rise was the boom in Tesla’s stock price. The staggering increase in its price even left Wall Street’s journals scratching up their heads. In 2020 alone, Tesla’s stock price surged more than 700%, leaving its investors delighted and haters surprised.

While many analysts said it’s a bloated price, that’ll soon brink down. But Elon proved all of them wrong. The massive surge continued, making Tesla the biggest car company and Elon Musk; the wealthiest person in the world.

But why Tesla’s stock was on a roll? What fueled the searing rally that completely outpaced the whole market? Let’s take a look.

Cashing in on China

For growing Tesla, the biggest challenge for Musk was countering production delays. Because the demand was soaring rapidly, and he had limited resources to catch up. So he took the bet and built Gigafactory in Shangai, China.

This decision was well-timed as the craze for EVs in China also picked up at the same time. And while the US market was jammed due to the virus, life in China was back on track as they were quick to control COVID-19.

So the lost sales of Tesla in the US were settled up with China. In fact, the revenues from China grew by 90% in 2020. So, when the sales of other car companies were drowning, Tesla was raking in dollars. This fueled the investor’s belief in Tesla, and thus, the stock price went up.

Massive Sales of Regulatory Credits

A big driver of Tesla’s success was the massive sales of regulatory credits. In 2020, Tesla made sales of $1.58 billion by selling emission credits to other automakers. And here’s the best part:

All these sales were pure profit. Because Tesla only manufactures EVs, thus they get regulatory credits for free. So regulatory credits proved to be a goldmine for Tesla, raising its Gross Margins to 26.4% in 2020 from 20% in 2019.

While many thought these profits weren’t sustainable, nothing was stopping it yet. And as the focus was increasing on clean energy, it’s expected to rise even more in the future. Elon predicted that long ago, and he was reaping the rewards finally in 2020.

Improved Infrastructure

Though Tesla had no tough competitors, they were always busy brushing up on the capabilities of EVs. Because improved infrastructure attracts customers and brings in more sales. The same happened in the year 2020.

Tesla introduced the most cost-effective lithium-ion batteries for their electric vehicles. And that’s not all. These batteries had an increased range of 54% and reduced costs of 56% (measured in $/kWh). That advancement alone dragged the stocks up as investors went crazy for investing in Tesla.

Another major update also happened in that same year. Tesla was leading the self-driving market as their competitors were way behind. And in October 2020, Tesla initiated a Full Self-Driving program in the US.

Both these upgrades in the EVs led Tesla to perform exceptionally well. After being at a loss for years, Tesla was closing consecutive quarters in profits. So everyone had to believe that EVs are the future, and investing in Tesla was the only wise option.

SpaceX Phenomenal Performance

2020 was a bad year for the world, but the best one for SpaceX. The company launched a total of 26 missions in the whole year without any major setbacks. Not only that, but SpaceX also earned its NASA flight certificate and bagged the deals with US Space Force and some private industries.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg and only tells a small portion of what they achieved. Out of the 26 launches, two of them carried out NASA astronauts to International Space Station. With these missions, SpaceX revolutionized the world by making commercial spaceflights possible.

But how much profit did SpaceX make in 2020?

Let’s do the maths. SpaceX actually earns by charging the fee for its space launch service. They launched a total of 15 space flights for $80 million per launch. This comes out to be a revenue of $1.2 billion made by SpaceX in 2020.

And not just that. SpaceX also signed a contract with the US government for sending military satellites at a whopping $316 million for the next five years. So not only SpaceX contributed to Elon’s wealth, but it also gave him a lot of influence that other entrepreneurs don’t have.

Strategic Partnerships and Acquisitions

While Elon is famous for Tesla and SpaceX, he also has a portfolio of other businesses to fall back on. Musk had invested in and founded many other companies that made him so rich. He started off with Zip2, sold it for $307 million, and jumped on the venture of X.com (now PayPal).

And after proving online banking successful, he sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion. But he didn’t relax with these millions even for a while. Musk soon took the riskiest ventures of electric vehicles (Tesla) and colonizing mars (SpaceX).

Only a crazy one like Elon can do such things. And that’s not all. He also partnered with many other companies while running SpaceX and Tesla. And these acquisitions too powered his wealth accumulation in 2020, a brief analysis of which is given below:

The Boring Company

Musk founded the boring company in 2016 to alleviate traffic woes by digging tunnels. Its revenue model is based on providing tunnel infrastructure and boring machine services. In 2020, the company completed its first project, the LVCC Loop. Now the company is valued at a staggering $5.7 billion.

Starlink

Being launched in 2019, Starlink aims at providing high-speed, low-latency broadband connections across the globe. In just one year, Starlink had sent 1,100 satellites into orbit and acquired around 10,000 customers. As per calculations, this generated almost $12 million in revenue.

Though the revenue isn’t that much, Starlink’s performance was overall excellent. And it boosted people’s confidence in Elon’s ideas and risky foreseeing projects. This led him to get investments in other companies and boosted his wealth.

Hard Work and Risk Taking

Though Elon made 100s of billions in just a single year, he worked hard towards this moment his entire life. This man gave his 100% in every project he undertook and never backed off after a failure. So it’s not just a matter of luck; Elon’s hard work, sheer determination, and foresightedness earned him this place.

But a lot of people do hard work consistently, right? So what set Elon apart from others? Well, many think he amassed his fortune through luck. But the truth is, he is the most adventurous and fearless entrepreneur I ever saw.

Other billionaires made their fortune by improvising a single clever and innovative idea through safe investments. But Elon had his own psyche that dragged him to the top. He simply ventured into spectacularly risky ideas and gave them all. All of his ideas had one thing in common, they had world-changing power and no competition at all.

So it’s not wrong to say that Musk’s bread and butter is big-bucks risk-taking. That mentality helped in every period of his life and so during the pandemic. While others were thinking of recession, this man showed no signs of slowing down. He took his bets even during the pandemic and finally came out as the richest person in the world.

Musk’s Twitter Monopoly

I’m not talking about his Twitter acquisition, but the way he used Twitter to his advantage during the pandemic. He brought big changes in crypto’s price by simply tweeting. When he first added #bitcoin in his Twitter bio, Bitcoin’s price rose 20% in no time.

And then his tweet about Dogecoin soared its price to a staggering 216%. This shows the influence Elon had on the crypto world. Many of Musk’s haters accused him of manipulating the crypto’s price to his advantage. God knows what the truth is. But Elon’s Twitter monopoly also played a major role in raising him to the heights of the richest person.

Elon’s Current Position

Fast forward to today, Elon continued rocking and shocking the world. He faced lots of ups and downs during this period but stood firm and crazy like ever. He reached his peak in November 2021, raising his net worth to a record $340 billion.

But then his net worth started declining and dropped to $140 billion as of today. And Elon got another record to his name, the first ever person to lose $200 billion. So what the whole world, except Elon and Besoz, couldn’t even earn, the man lost more than that in a year. You can only expect this from a madman like Elon.

The plunge in Tesla’s stock and the Twitter acquisition are the reasons behind the loss. Still, he is the 2nd richest person in the world only behind Bernard Arnault & family. Now, he is facing the challenge of making Twitter profitable, fighting competition in the EVs market, and facing his critics. Let’s see how he comes out of the battle this time.

Final Thoughts

Elon’s tremendous rise in wealth during the pandemic is connected to many factors. But stocks were the main reason he did so well. Elon owned roughly 20% of Tesla and 50% of SpaceX shares in 2020. So as the stock prices of these companies went up, Elon’s net worth also raised with them.

Overall, Elon Musk’s success during the pandemic was due to his already successful business ventures, willingness to take risks, and overall optimism. And Musk proved time and time again that he is not afraid to take risks by venturing into endeavors that others might not even think of. These qualities have no doubt helped him to become even richer during the pandemic.