Elon Musk passes Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world

Elon+Musk%2C+the+single+wealthiest+person+in+the+world+as+of+January+7

James Duncan Davidson

Elon Musk, the single wealthiest person in the world as of January 7

Jamison Vetter, Staff Writer

Elon Musk replaced Jeff Bezos as the richest person on Earth, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Musk, who created electric car manufacturer Tesla and SpaceX, has a net worth of $188.5 billion, which clocks in at about $1.5 billion higher than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Bloomberg reported, coming from the increase in the price of Tesla shares. 

Musk’s immense growth in wealth is not simply a retrieval of money lost in the market plunge of February 2020, his growth since then has been straight profit. He was worth about the same in March 2019 as in March 2020. Musk’s burst of money in the past 10 months has been pure gain. 

“Musk’s wealth growth during the pandemic is mind-boggling. While millions of Americans have lost work and hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, billionaires like Musk are having the greatest financial year of their lives,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness. “With the new administration and Congress, we have the chance to reform the tax code so that the rich and corporations finally pay their fair share. A special tax on billionaires like Musk would be a good place to start.”

The 651 U.S. billionaires have gained over $1 trillion since March 2020 and are now worth a jaw-dropping $4 trillion. 

Musk’s new position comes less than two months after he overtook Bill Gates as the second-richest person in the world, with his net worth rising by $7.2 billion at the time. Last year, Musk’s net worth grew by $100.3 billion total. Musk ranked 35th on the richest-person list last January, according to Bloomberg

After reports of Musk’s new status were published, he tweeted “How strange,” then added, “Well, back to work.”

Despite losing the top spot on the wealth list, Bezos is hardly at loss, his wealth has skyrocketed from $71 billion to $184 billion since March. The trio of Earth’s richest people: Musk, Bezos, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, are all worth almost half of a trillion dollars combined.  

Musk could get even wealthier after unlocking multiple stock awards from his stunning $50 billion pay package which had been approved in early 2018.