Elon Musk teetered back and forth with Jeff Bezos for the title of the richest person in the world. One day it was Musk, the next it was Bezos and sometimes the gap between them seemed razor-thin. But today,

Doing that on a maiden flight would be unprecedented: that kind of partial reusability was pioneered by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket firm, and it required several attempts before eventually sticking the landing in 2016.

Elon Musk, already the world's richest person, saw his net worth grow by a staggering $213 billion this year alone—largely driven by his close ties to President-elect Donald Trump and the rallying performance of Tesla, SpaceX, and his other ventures.

Tesla was close to bankruptcy, leading Elon Musk to consider selling the company to Google for $6 billion. The deal was nearly finalized with Musk set to remain at Tesla for eight years. However, a surge in Model S sales and subsequent profits allowed Tesla to recover,

Musk's Tesla stake rose by $111 billion — 65% — last year. All but $2 billion of Musk’s Tesla gain and about 98% of what other Tesla shareholders gained came after Election Day, when Musk began hanging out extensively with Donald Trump and started calling himself Trump’s “first buddy.