The pandemic has been financially devastating for millions, but it’s been good for billionaires — particularly for Tesla CEO and notoriously bad tweeter Elon Musk, who today became the richest person in the world.
Musk overtook Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos for the title, thanks to a 4.8% rise in Tesla’s share price that increased his net worth to $188.5 billion as of Thursday morning. As Bloomberg points out, that’s $1.5 billion more than Bezos, whose net worth currently stands at $187 billion. Bezos held the title of the wealthiest person in the world since October 2017.
Bloomberg also emphasizes that Musk’s rise has been pretty meteoric. “The milestone caps an extraordinary 12 months for Musk,” the publication writes. “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 rally in Tesla’s share price, which surged 743% last year on the back of consistent profits, inclusion in the S&P 500 Index and enthusiasm from Wall Street and retail investors alike.”
2020 wasn’t just a good year for the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur, however: overall, the world’s 500 richest people added a record-setting $1.8 trillion (yes, trillion) to their combined net worth during the year, a 31% increase from the previous year.
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