FB Roundup Elon Musk, Selena Gomez, Leon Black
Elon Musk on course to be first trillionaire
Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is set to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027.
A new report from Informa Connect Academy believes that Musk is best placed to do so, ahead of Gautam Adani, NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, Barito Pacific’s Prajogo Pangestu, and Bernard Arnault and Family.
“Who hasn’t heard of Elon Musk? He’s the founder of the rapidly growing automotive company Tesla, the manufacturer of advanced rockets and spacecraft, SpaceX, and the person you can thank (or blame) for Twitter’s rebranding to X. With a net worth of $195 B, growing at an average rate of 109.88% every year, Elon Musk is the clear favourite to become the first trillionaire by 2027,” Informa Connect Academy says.
This is despite the fact that, as we reported at the beginning of August, shares in Tesla continue to swing.
They were hit badly after much weaker-than-expected second-quarter results, though they have swung back after analysts responded favourably to the electric vehicle manufacturer’s vision for self-driving vehicles.
In a press release, the company blamed a whole raft of factors including reduced average selling prices, restructuring charges and an increase in operating expenses largely driven by AI projects among others.
Musk, who announced in August that he is supporting former president Donald Trump as the Republican seeks a second presidency in November’s election, was recently named the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $237 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Selena Gomez joins billionaires club
Actress and singer Selena Gomez is the latest celebrity to make it to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
As Bloomberg put it: “The 32-year-old rose to fame as a kid on the Disney Channel, started a music career, created her own beauty brand and is now starring on the Emmy-nominated Hulu show. In the process, she’s built a fortune that’s made her one of the country’s youngest female self-made billionaires”.
The bulk of her wealth comes from her US makeup and cosmetics company Rare Beauty. Launching in September 2020, the brand was inspired by Gomez’s third studio album Rare.
But she also has a canny eye for brand partnerships (that with Puma is worth a reported $30 million while her deal with Coach is said to be worth $10 million), acting deals specifically her show “Only Murders in the Building”, and Wondermind, a mental-health startup.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2020, Gomez has talked many times about her own struggles with mental health. In an interview with fashion title Vogue in October last year, she talked about checking herself into a psychiatric facility in Tennessee last summer to deal with feelings of depression and anxiety that emerged while she was on tour
“My self-esteem was shot,” she says. “I was depressed, anxious. I started to have panic attacks right before getting on stage, or right after leaving the stage.”
The most followed woman in the world on Instagram, Gomez is worth $1.3 billion, according to the index.
Leon Black sets up office in Abu Dhabi
Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, has opened a branch of his family office in Abu Dhabi.
In doing so he follows hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio who set up an office in the capital of the United Arab Emirates last year. A number of billionaires have made it their base in recent years including India’s Adani family and Russian steel magnate Vladimir Lisin.
Bloomberg reports that Black’s new office is called Scimitar and that he is investing with a locally based team led by Asad Hussaini.
“I’ve been coming here for more than 30 years and the growth and prosperity that has occurred under Abu Dhabi’s visionary leadership is truly remarkable. My family office wants to be a part of that transformation,” Black said in a statement.
Forbes estimates that Black has a net worth of $13.3 billion.
He started his career at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he rose to head the mergers and acquisitions group.
After Drexel collapsed in 1990, Black went on to found Apollo Global Management with Joshua Harris and Marc Rowan. Although Apollo now has $600 billion in assets under management, Black stepped back from his position as chief executive and chairman in March 2021 after a board investigation found that he had paid almost $160 million in fees to the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for tax and estate planning.
Apollo went public in 2011 and Black still owns around 15% of the company.
