BackElon Musk $3 billion away to surpass Jeff Bezos as world's richest person
The world’s 500 richest people added a record $1.8 trillion to their combined net worth last year, equivalent to a 31% increase.
PremiumElon R Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla Inc. and SpaceX is close to surpassing Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person. A 2.8% rally in the electric carmaker’s share price Wednesday boosted Musk to within $3 billion of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, who currently occupies the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
Jeff Bezos's total wealth as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index stood at $184 billion. Elon Musk is just below Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos at number with a total wealth of $181 billion.
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As chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, Musk is also a rival to Bezos, owner of Blue Origin LLC, in the private space race.
Over the past year his Musk's worth soared by more than $150 billion in possibly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history. Fueling his rise was an unprecedented rally in Tesla’s share price, which surged 743% in 2020 on the back of consistent profits, inclusion in the S&P 500 Index and enthusiasm from Wall Street and retail investors alike.
The world’s 500 richest people added a record $1.8 trillion to their combined net worth last year, equivalent to a 31% increase. The gains were disproportionately at the top, where five individuals hold fortunes in excess of $100 billion and another 20 are worth at least $50 billion.
China's Zhong Shanshan has also set a new wealth record. The chairman of Nongfu Spring Co., a bottled-water company that’s ubiquitous in China, is now richer than Warren Buffett as his fortune surged $13.5 billion to $91.7 billion since the start of the year. He is now the world's sixth wealthiest person.
Zhong dethroned India’s Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s wealthiest person last week. Mukesh Ambani is world's 13th richest person of the world holding total net worth of $73.9 Billion. (with Bloomberg inputs)
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