Elon Musk narrowing gap to near world’s richest title again as his wealth surges this year

Billionaire and currently world's second richest Elon Musk is closing in on taking back his title as the world’s richest, the position that he lost to Bernard Arnault last year, as Tesla chief's wealth has been surging since the start of this year on the back of more than 85% rise in shares of Tesla Inc in more than a month. 

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk's wealth has surged by over $46 billion or 34% in year-to-date (YTD) terms with his total wealth at $183 billion as of February 17, 2023. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.

Elon Musk is the chief executive of Tesla, which sells electric vehicles and home solar batteries. Musk's also the chief executive of SpaceX, a rocket manufacturer tapped by NASA to resupply the space station, and has a stake in social networking company Twitter.

Though, it may take a bit longer for Musk to overtake the French luxury-goods titan after disclosing this week he gave 11.6 million Tesla shares to unnamed charitable causes between August and December. The disclosure comes as Musk has narrowed the gap to Arnault to less than $10 billion amid signs of growing demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles (EVs) and the company's better-than-expected earnings.

Musk owns about 13% of Tesla, according to a February 2023 regulatory filing. He also holds about 304 million exercisable stock options from his 2018 compensation package. SpaceX is valued using a January 2023 funding round that valued the company at about $137 billion, as per Bloomberg data. Musk owns 42% of the closely held company through a trust, according to a December 2022 filing with the Federal Communications Commission. 

In April 2022 Musk offered to buy Twitter Inc for $44 billion. The deal closed in October 2022. He's calculated to own about 79% of the company based on external investors disclosed in May 2022. Its value is adjusted based on the price disclosed by investor Fidelity Inc. in a January 2023 filing.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)