Chapter 67: Money: 2021–2022

Musk becomes the world's richest person as Tesla's valuation soars past $1 trillion, securing a $56 billion payout from his 2018 compensation deal. Despite achieving extreme wealth, he remains restless and melancholic, struggling with the absence of survival-mode urgency that has long driven him.

In January 2021, Tesla's stock rebounds dramatically from its 2020 lows, propelling Musk to the world's richest person with $190 billion, surpassing Jeff Bezos. The company's 2018 compensation agreement, which seemed impossibly ambitious at the time, pays off spectacularly: Tesla reaches $1 trillion valuation in October 2021, and by April 2022 reports $5 billion profit on $19 billion revenue, resulting in Musk's net worth reaching $304 billion. Musk faces public criticism for his wealth and tax practices. In response to a November 2021 Twitter poll about selling Tesla stock, he exercises expiring options and pays $11 billion in taxes, the largest single tax bill in U.S. history. He engages in a public exchange with Senator Elizabeth Warren over tax fairness. However, Musk's extreme wealth does not bring happiness. During a family birthday party in Cabo San Lucas in October 2021, he withdraws and plays video games despite favorable circumstances. He confides that he has endured nonstop pressure since 2007, with constant survival-mode stress manifesting as physical ailments including stomach pain and heartburn. He articulates a crucial self-insight: he thrives under existential threat but struggles with motivation when survival pressures lift. This psychological pattern drives him to manufacture crises and new challenges. During Thanksgiving with family in Austin, despite his mother Maye's concern about his loneliness, he abruptly abandons the gathering to focus on Raptor engine problems at SpaceX—issues he later acknowledges existed mainly in his mind, with the engine not expected to be ready for over a year.