Elon Musk overtakes Bezos to grow to be world’s richest particular person | Automotive Business Information

A 4.8 percent rally in Tesla shares Thursday brought Musk past Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc., on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Elon Musk, the outspoken entrepreneur behind Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, is now the richest person on the planet.

A 4.8% rally in the electric car maker’s share price on Thursday led Musk past Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

South African-born engineering fortune was $ 188.5 billion in New York at 10:15 a.m., $ 1.5 billion more than Bezos, who has held the top spot since October 2017. As Chief Executive Officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX Musk is also rivaling Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin LLC, in the private space race.

The milestone limits an exceptional 12 months for Musk. In the past year, his net worth rose more than $ 150 billion in what is possibly the fastest struggle for wealth creation in history. Its surge was driven by an unprecedented rally in Tesla’s stock price, which rose 743% over the past year on the back of steady gains, inclusion in the S&P 500 index, and excitement from Wall Street and retail investors alike.

The rise in Tesla’s share price adds light years to its valuation of other automakers on numerous metrics. Tesla produced just over half a million cars last year, a fraction of what Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. produced. The company is poised for more near-term gains as the Democrats captured both the Georgia Senate and seats Control of Congress handed over to the party, which advocates a faster introduction of electric vehicles.

Stock options

49-year-old Musk has benefited from Tesla’s stratospheric ascent in several ways. In addition to his 20% stake in the automaker, he sits on approximately $ 42 billion in unrealized paper profits from vested stock options. These securities come from two grants he received in 2012 and 2018. The latter was the largest compensation agreement ever made between a CEO and a company board.

Despite his astronomical achievements, Musk has stated that he has little interest in material things and few assets outside of his stake in Tesla and SpaceX. He told Axel Springer in an interview last month that the main purpose of his wealth is to accelerate the development of mankind into a space-traveling civilization.

“I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars,” said Musk. “That just means a lot of capital.”

The 500 richest people in the world added a record $ 1.8 trillion to their total wealth last year, a 31% increase. Profits were disproportionately high at the top, with five people holding more than $ 100 billion in net worth and another 20 worth at least $ 50 billion.

Less than a week after the start of the new year, the ranking has already been upgraded through extraordinary rallies. China’s Zhong Shanshan has overtaken Warren Buffett to finish sixth after stocks of his bottled water company soared and added $ 15.2 billion in net worth.

(Updates the fortune in the third paragraph.)
–With the support of Anders Melin and Tom Maloney.