Elon Musk Now Richest Person In The World

Elon Musk Now Richest Person In The World

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, is now the richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $185 billion.

Musk, on Thursday, surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to the richest person title after a 6% rise in Tesla (TSLA) shares lifted the value of its CEO’s stock holdings and options by $10 billion. He takes the top spot from Bezos, who is currently valued at $187 billion and has held the highly coveted title since 2017.

Musk’s wealth surge over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history. The 49-year-old entrepreneur started 2020 worth about $27 billion and was barely in the top 50 richest people.

Tesla’s rocketing share price — which has increased more than nine-fold over the past year — along with his generous pay package have added more than $150 billion to his net worth.

Elon Musk passed Warren Buffett in July to become the seventh richest person. In November, Musk raced past Bill Gates to become the second richest person. Musk has gained more wealth over the past 12 months than Bill Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion, CNBC reported.

Reacting to the new of the increase in his fortune, Musk in his signature style replied, “How strange”.

Musk once offered insight about his money which he said is meant to ensure the continuation of life should earth get destroyed:

“About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor-like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves,” he wrote in a tweet.