Elon Musk set to become world’s richest person

The co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, is set to become the world’s richest person, the position currently held by Amazon Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Bezos.

In a report released by Bloomberg real-time billionaire tracker on Thursday, the two multi-billionaires are within $3 billion of each other with Bezos on $184 billion and Musk at $181 billion.

The co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates is now a distant third at $132 billion.

Musk caught Gates for the title of the world’s second-richest person late November last year but Tesla shares have increased in value by 45 percent since then, lifting Musk’s net worth by $53 billion over the past couple of months.

However, Forbes real-time tracker still has them at $18 billion apart after Bezos lost $4.3 billion in the value of his Amazon stock on Wednesday to fall to $183.4 billion on concerns that Democratic control of the United States Senate could mean greater scrutiny and regulation of Big Tech.

Another gain in Tesla shares lifted Musk’s net worth by $4.1 billion to $165.4 billion, according to Forbes’ calculations. But Forbes does not appear to be giving Musk credit for the value of options he received in 2020 to buy an additional 33.6 million shares of Tesla.

READ ALSO: Tesla chief, Elon Musk to overtake Zuckerberg in world’s billionaires’ list

Musk is also the primary shareholder of SpaceX, another company in which he is CEO. Although SpaceX is privately held, its value does not fluctuate as much as the value of Tesla.

Bezos’ stake in Amazon shares increased by $75 billion to $173.3 billion in 2020, given the huge increase in sales driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that was nothing compared to Musk’s holdings in Tesla. The 170 million shares he already owns increased in value by $106 billion in 2020 as shares shot up 743 percent during the course of the year.

It’s not just Bezos who Musk is close to catching. ExxonMobil, the US most valuable oil company, has a market value of $188.6 billion.

So Musk, who is the leading advocate of switching cars around the world from gas and diesel to electric vehicles, is close to being worth as much as one of America’s largest oil companies.

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