January 8, 2021 – Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur, has become the world’s richest person, with his net worth now thought to be $195 billion.
Elon Musk become the world’s richest person when his net worth soared past the $185 billion mark, usurping Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who had been at the top since 2017.
Musk’s electric car company Tesla has been surging in value over the last 12 months, hitting a market value of $700 billion for the first time on Wednesday.
The tycoon’s fortunes have been further buoyed by politics. Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election and a Senate now controlled by the Democrats means there will likely be a more green-driven agenda for the next few years – a potential game changer for Tesla and the overall electric vehicle sector.
Despite Tesla having just made its first annual profit, it is more valuable than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors and Ford combined.
Jeff Bezos, who has seen Amazon benefit from stronger demand for both its online store and cloud computing services due to the coronavirus pandemic, lost a 4% stake in Amazon to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott after they divorced, which helped Musk overtake him.
The gains are very high among the top five individuals who each hold fortunes in excess of $100 billion, with another 20 people worth at least $50 billion each.
Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index shows the world’s top 500 billionaires increased their net worth in 2020 by $1.8 trillion to $7.6 trillion – the largest annual leap in fortune since the index began in 2012.
