With a net worth of not less than $185 billion, business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer, Elon Musk just became the world's wealthiest person.
On Top of World's Richest People List
The increase in the share price of Tesla on Thursday catapulted Musk to pass Jeff Bezos, the person who had been the richest individual since 2017 and currently has a net worth of an estimated $184 billion.
The surge in the wealth of Musk over the past year marks the fastest rise of an individual to the top of the rich list in history as it has been a dramatic financial turnaround for the famed entrepreneur who was just 18 months ago was in the headlines due to the rapid cash burn of Tesla and his personal leverage against the stock of the company.
The business magnate started the year 2020 with a net worth of around $27 billion, and he was barely in the top 50 of the richest people.
The rocketing share price of Tesla has increased by not less than ninefold over the past year, together with his generous pay package, adding up to more than $150 billion to his net worth.
In addition, the share price of Amazon has remained more subdued due to the potential for additional regulation coming from Washington.
In July, Elon Musk passed Warren Buffett and became the seventh richest person in the world.
And in November, the business magnate raced past the American co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, to become the second richest person globally.
According to CNBC, over the past 12 months was just unbelievable for Musk according to some analyst, SpaceX's founder has gained more wealth than the entire net worth of Gates, which is at $132 billion.
The shares of Tesla closed on Thursday at $816.04, which went up to almost 8%.
Currently, the market value of the company has grown to more than $760 billion.
Based on the Billionaires Index of Bloomberg, Musk is within $3 billion of the net worth of Bezos on Wednesday, before the trading on Thursday, the Real-Time Billionaires list of Forbes, Musk is around $7 billion behind Bezos after the market close on Thursday.
According to Forbes, the net worth of Bezos is $184.6 billion, and the business magnate, founder of SpaceX, is at $177.2 billion.
However, based on some economists, Forbes may not be including the value of the options Musk, which he received as part of his pay package, to buy not less than 33 million shares of Tesla, BBC reported.
On Thursday, a Twitter account known as 'Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley' sharing and tagging that the 49-year-old business magnate finally became the richest man in the world, The Guardian reported.
On the other hand, in 2018, Musk shared that half of his money will be used to solve the Earth's problems, while the other half will be used in building a city on Mars.
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