Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has become the second richest person in the world. He achieved this feat by surpassing the net worth of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as his company continued its astounding stock-market surge. Musk is now only behind Amazon chief Jeff Bezos. Musk has added a total of around USD 100 billion in 2020, all because of better performance by Tesla’s stock. This addition is a major chunk of his net worth. The electronic car maker’s market value is heading towards USD 500 billion which makes it the most valuable automaker in the world. The share price of Tesla has leaped nearly 28 per cent in the last one week.
The fortune of the electric car maker increased by USD 7.2 billion on Monday after Tesla’s share jumped by around 6.5 per cent. This put his total net worth at USD 127.9 billion, more than that of Bill Gates. According to reports, Gates would have been richer but he has been donating a huge amount of money to charities throughout the year. He has also donated USD 27 billion to his Gates Foundation. However, the gap is very minimal as Gates’ net total worth is USD 127.7 billion, as Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. This comes less than a week after the South African-born entrepreneur surpassed the net total worth of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest person.
Musk is still far behind Bezos who is at the top of the list with USD 182 billion fortune. Tesla shares have jumped 387.9 per cent this year and the company seems to now making money after years of losses. 65-year-old Gates remained world’s richest person for several years before he was dethroned by Bezos in 2017. Gates’ net worth would have been even more it he hadn’t donated a huge chunk of his money to charity. For the uninitiated, Gates and Musk have been trading jabs off late. Musk was criticised by Gates for downplaying concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul is an American-based writer covering Latest business trends. Paul cover Business and media for many news sites. He has been breaking news and writing features on these topics for major publications since 2012. Paul prefers writing about business news keeping science and technology into perspective.
