Elon Musk has done it again, after becoming the 3rd person in history to reach the $200 billion mark, he has eclipsed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world. The Tesla CEO says he will send a statue of the number ‘2’ to Bezos along with a silver medal.
Tesla's CEO Elon Musk, with a net worth of $213 billion has overcome Amazon's Jeff Bezos, 197 billion, to become the world's richest person again, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk’s fortune is heavily tied to his ownership of SpaceX and Tesla, which is the world's most valuable automobile maker. Tesla currently has a market cap of more than $765 billion, and SpaceX has been valued at $74 billion after a funding round in February.
In the past week, the Tesla founder has gained around $13 billion in net worth as the share price of his electric vehicle company has surged. Musk's net worth has increased as shares of Tesla have continued a four-month rally, the highest they’ve been since February this year.
Thanks to the success of his companies Musk has seen his net worth grow by a staggering $43 billion this year alone, while his rival Bezos has had a less successful year, increasing his fortune by a still respectable $6.6 billion.
When asked for a comment on becoming the world’s richest man again, Musk quipped “I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” according to Forbes.
The two billionaire executives have been rivals both when it comes to the title of the world’s richest man, and also with their space ambitions. Musk and Bezos head up two competing rocket companies, Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, while Musk launched SpaceX in 2002.
Both men recently lost out to fellow billionaire Richard Branson in the space race but eventually achieved success launching rockets into orbit. In July, Bezos flew into suborbital space on a ten-minute ride aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft. Musk had success launching an all-civilian crew into space last month.
The two have increasingly traded jabs at one another on Twitter and in speeches.
Bezos has balked at Musk’s idea of colonizing Mars. “My friends, who want to move to Mars? I say, ‘Do me a favor. Go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first and see if you like it—because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars,” while Musk returned fire, jabbing Bezos for suing NASA who awarded SpaceX a contract over rival Blue Origin, “Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.”
Musk was previously the richest person in the world in January, when shares of Tesla spiked, before being dethroned by Bezos a month later. It may not last, but it seems like he’s using the opportunity to take jabs at Bezos once again.
Sources: Forbes, The Guardian