Tesla Founder Elon Musk Becomes World’s Richest Person, Surpassing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
Elon Musk – the Tesla and SpaceX founder, has overtaken Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, January 7, 2020.
With a 6% rise in Tesla’s share price, Elon Musk’s net worth got added by $10 billion, on early Thursday, to reach a staggering $191 billion. Currently, his net worth is $195 billion ranking the Tesla CEO at the top spot according to the Bloomberg billionaires index. Meanwhile, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, who had held the number one rank since October 2017, dropped to number two with a net worth of $185 billion. Below Bezos, the third richest person in the world is the Microsoft founder Bill Gates with $134 billion.
Musk, who also owns SpaceX – an aerospace company, was the 35th richest person in the world at the start of 2020. He surpassed Bill Gates to become the second richest person just less than two months ago and is now the world’s richest person. He reacted to the news saying “how strange” and “well, back to work …” via tweeter.
Last year, Tesla’s share price surged by 743% adding more than $165 billion to Musk’s wealth. It could be the greatest amount of wealth generated by an individual in a spell of a year. Since Tesla’s initial public offering in 2010, the shares have gained more than 23,900% including a 5-for-1 stock split last year.
The market value of the electric car company – Tesla, has soared above $700 billion for the first time this week. The company is now worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined.
Analysts believe the increment in Tesla’s value was boosted by the Democratic victories in Georgia to take control of the US Senate, in hopes that the newly elected Senate would encourage the green agenda.
Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said, “A Blue Senate is very bullish and a potential ‘game-changer’ for Tesla and the overall electric vehicle sector, with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards for the next few years.” He also added that expected electric vehicle tax credits would benefit Tesla, “which continues to have an iron grip on the market today”.
As for Jeff Bezos, Amazon also benefited over the past year amid the coronavirus pandemic which moreover saw a rise in demand for online store and cloud computing services. But, he gave a 4% stake in the business to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in his divorce. He also donated shares worth about $680 million in November. He had also recently demonstrated Neuralink brain chip implant which will be the solution for brain and spinal cord injuries or congenital defects.
Musk, on another hand, hasn’t disposed of any of his Tesla shares so far, however, he said about half of his money “is intended to help problems on Earth” and the other half “to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure the continuation of life” oh his old tweet.
Top ten richest people in the world:
According to the Bloomberg billionaires index on January 8, 2021, the top ten wealthiest people across the globe are:
| Rank | Name | Total Net Worth | Country | Industry |
| 1 | Elon R Musk | $195B | United States | Technology |
| 2 | Jeff Bezos | $185B | United States | Technology |
| 3 | Bill Gates | $134B | United States | Technology |
| 4 | Bernard Arnault | $116B | France | Consumer |
| 5 | Mark Zuckerberg | $102B | United States | Technology |
| 6 | Zhong Shanshan | $93.1B | China | Diversified |
| 7 | Warren Buffett | $88.2B | United States | Diversified |
| 8 | Larry Page | $83.6B | United States | Technology |
| 9 | Sergey Brin | $81B | United States | Technology |
| 10 | Larry Ellison | $80B | United States | Technology |
