Elon Musk, the founder of the U.S. EV company Tesla, became the world’s richest man due to soaring stock prices. Bloomberg reported (1/7) that Elon Musk net worth was $188.5 billion, beating Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by $1.5 billion. While according to CNBC’s tally, Musk’s net worth was $185billion exceeding the $184 billion Bezos.
It is the first time in three years and three months that the title of the richest man in the world has changed.
In the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos has never given up this position for more than three years. He topped the list for the first time in October 2017.
On the other hand, Musk had a net worth of $27 billion at the beginning of last year. It barely reached the top 50.
However, Tesla’s stock price soared 743% over the past year and continued to soar even after the year changed. Therefore causing the company’s billionaire ranking to fluctuate.
Musk’s net worth increased by more than $150 billion in 2020, the fastest increase in history, Bloomberg reported.
Previously, Musk beat legendary investor Warren Buffett in July last year to rank seventh in the world’s wealthiest rankings, and in November, he surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to rank second.
Musk holds a 20% stake in Tesla, and profits from unrealized books through stock options are $42 billion. There are few assets other than that.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are rivals in business as well as in the ranks of rich people
Musk, a native of South Africa, operates SpaceX, a private space exploration company, and Bezos also operates Blue Origin, a space exploration company.
Bloomberg pointed out that Tesla’s stock price, which produced only 500,000 electric vehicles in the past year, has a big gap from its performance. Meanwhile, the world’s 500 richest people increased their wealth by 1.8 trillion dollars last year alone, despite suffering from the pandemic.
The U.S. Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) also analyzed that the wealth of 651 U.S. billionaires has increased by more than $1 trillion over the past nine months, further increasing inequality in wealth since COVID-19 started.
