Elon Musk, founder of Tesla electric carmaker and Space Exploration Technologies Corp, has overtaken Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos to become the world’s wealthiest person.
A 4.8% surge in the electric carmaker’s share price at Thursday’s trading session boosted Elon Musk’s wealth valuation past Jeff Bezos on Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
Including today’s gains in Tesla shares, Musk recorded a net worth of more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, who has held the top spot since October 2017.
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Musk is a major shareholder of the electric car company and has benefited from Tesla’s surging share price over the last year.
As chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Musk is also a rival to Bezos, owner of Blue Origin LLC, in the private space race.
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The new milestone caps an extraordinary 12 months for Musk. Over the past year, his net worth soared by more than $150 billion in possibly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history.
Fueling his rise was an unprecedented rise in Tesla’s share price, which surged 743% last year on the back of consistent profits.
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The jump in Tesla’s stock price further inflates a valuation apart from other automakers on numerous metrics.
Tesla produced just over half-a-million cars last year, a fraction of the output of Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.
The company is now poised for more gains as Democrats earned more Senate seats and handed control of US Congress to the party that has advocated for quicker adoption of electric vehicles.
