Elon Musk has passed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Elon Musk has risen to the number one spot with an estimated net worth of $195 billion. Bezos now sits in the number two position at $185 billion.
Bezos previously nabbed the crown from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, rounding out the trio of rich white guys.
Musk is a self-made entrepreneur and the owner of Tesla and SpaceX. He’s known for pushing the boundaries of tech and science with some crazy ideas, like fully electric cars, sending humans to colonise Mars and naming his child X Æ A-XII.
A 4.8% rise in Tesla’s share price pushed Musk into the number one spot. It’s expected the share price rose due to hopes of a Democrat-controlled Senate in the US, which might usher in a green agenda, as per The Guardian.
While Amazon stock has also risen over the past year thanks to the pandemic, Bezos gave 4 per cent of his stake to his ex-wife, which has impacted his figures on the list.
Although Bloomberg’s report has Musk surpassing Bezos in wealth, Forbes still estimates he is $1 billion behind the Amazon founder.
Despite the impact of the worldwide pandemic, Tesla managed to hit some major milestones last year and shipped nearly half a million cars. Musk also launched his Tesla tequila brand. Because surely having your own alcohol brand is a pre-requisite of becoming the world’s richest person.
In reaction to today’s news that he’d become the wealthiest person, Musk had this response:
Well, back to work …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
To get an idea of just how rich Musk now is, Bloomberg estimates that his wealth is equivalent to 0.909 per cent of the GDP of the United States. Or 2,835,087 times the median US household income. A shit-tonne of money, basically.
Last year, Humphrey Yang posted a video on TikTok converting Jeff Bezos’ wealth to grains of rice. So if you’d like a visual representation of how much money Musk now has, watch this video and then add some more.
@humphreytalks Rice. Part 2: Jeff Bezos net worth. #rice #billion #billions #amazon #jeffbezos #money #personalfinance #xyzcba
So what exactly does Musk plan to do with all his wealth?
Musk’s Twitter claims that half his fortune is intended to help solve problems on Earth and the other half is to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars for when WW3 ultimately destroys us. He also plans to retire on Mars.
Ah, the dream.