Elon Musk beats Jeff Bezos to become world’s richest person
Elon Musk's net worth surged to over $188 billion, one billion dollars more than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's net worth of $187 billion
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world, according to the latest data on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), which is a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
Musk’s net worth now stands at over $188 billion, one billion dollars more than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth of $187 billion, thanks to the continued rise in Tesla’s stock price. Bezos had been the richest person since 2017.
On achieving this feat, Musk reacted in his style, replying to a Twitter user sharing the news with the remark “how strange”.
On Thursday, Tesla shares jumped by 6.19 percent to hit a record high of $802.75 after opening higher at $777.63 against the previous closing price of $755.98. The stock saw a surge in buying after analysts at RBC Capital Markets ended the bearish call on Tesla Inc.
SP 500. Meanwhile, Amazon shares were up 1.78 percent at $3,194.33.
Musk, who began 2020 with a worth around $27 billion, saw his wealth surging by a staggering $150 billion, which indicates a sharp financial turnaround for the outspoken entrepreneur. This is reportedly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history.
The South Africa-born engineer has benefited from a strong rally in Tesla shares, who owns a 20 percent stake in the automaker.
Besides, he also sits on around $42 billion of unrealised paper gains on vested stock options, which he received in 2012 and 2018. Adding to this, Musk reportedly holds a majority stake in Space-X, which accounts for about $15 billion.
