Ritik Gupta
Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk outperformed Amazon.com Inc’s top boss Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
Comprising Thursday’s gains in Tesla shares, Musk had a net worth of more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
At 10:54 ET, Tesla Inc’s shares were up 5.65% or 42.75 points at $798.73. A 4.8% rally in the electric carmaker’s share price Thursday strengthened Musk past Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.
The 49-year-old South Africa-born engineer’s net worth was $188.5 billion at 10:15 a.m. in New York, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, who has held the top place since October 2017. As chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, Musk is moreover a rival to Bezos, Blue Origin LLC, in the private space race.
“How strange,” Musk tweeted Thursday on the news. “Well, back to work …”
Jan 7, 2021
.@elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion.
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) January 7, 2021
Musk only almost passed Bill Gates in November to become the second-richest person in the world. The landmark beats a tremendous 12 months for Musk. Over the past year, his net worth has risen by more than $150 billion in perhaps the quickest session of wealth achievement in history. Fueling his growth was a remarkable rally in Tesla’s share price, which rose 743% last year on the back of consistent revenues, comprising the S&P 500 Index, and enthusiasm from Wall Street and retail investors alike.
The leap in Tesla’s stock rate further increases a valuation light-years apart from other automakers on many metrics. Tesla generated just over half-a-million cars last year, a portion of the production of Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. The company is steadied for further near-term profits as Democrats seized both Georgia Senate seats and handed Congress’s grasp to the party supporting quicker electric vehicle adoption.
The world’s 500 wealthiest people augmented a record $1.8 trillion to their integrated net worth last year, analogous to a 31% increase. The increases were disproportionately at the prime, where five people hold wealth over $100 billion, and another 20 are worth at least $50 billion.
Less than a week into the new year, the hierarchies have already been upended by remarkable recoveries. China’s Zhong Shanshan has hurdled past Warren Buffett to contend the sixth niche after shares of his bottled-water company rose, putting in $15.2 billion to his fortune.
