Elon Musk is the richest man in the world today reaching $ 200 billion thanks to a surge in Tesla shares. The assets of Tesla’s patron touch a new record that of 200 billion, previously also touched by the founder of Amazon and his space rival Jeff Bezos, who reached the threshold of 200 billion dollars for the first time in August 2020, and luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, who did it briefly last month.
Tesla grinds successes on the stock market
Shares of Musk’s Tesla rallied continuously for four months, closing up 2.2% at $ 791.36, the highest since February of this year. Musk earned $ 3.8 billion on Monday and was worth a total of $ 203.4 billion at the close of the market. Its value exceeds that of Bezos, whose fortune dropped $ 1 billion on Monday to $ 197.7 billion due to a 0.6% decline in Amazon stock.
On the stock market of Amazon in six months it reached a growth of 7% while Tesla of 27% and in three months the Seattle giant marks -4% against Tesla’s + 15%. Musk is richer now than he was at Tesla’s peak in January – when he briefly became the world‘s richest tycoon for the first time – because he received additional stock option grants that increased his stake in Tesla. Today Musk has around 73.5 million Tesla options worth around $ 53 billion. Musk’s fortune is closely tied to his Tesla and SpaceX ownership, which was valued at $ 74 billion after a funding round in February. Tesla’s stock rose more than 720% in 2020, helping to increase Musk’s net worth by more than $ 125 billion in one year. After trading places with Bezos as the richest person in the world for several days in January, Tesla shares began to decline. In April, Musk was also overtaken by Arnault.
The rivalry between Musk and Bezos
“I’m sending a giant statue with the number ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” Musk wrote in a short email. The joke comes as no surprise considering the eccentric nature of Tesla’s CEO, who in the past on Twitter jokingly tagged Bezos as an “imitator” twice (both times using a cat emoji), first in April 2019. , when Amazon announced plans to launch internet-connection satellites competing with Musk’s SpaceX and again in June 2020, when Amazon acquired self-driving car company Zoox, which is challenging Tesla.
In the last few years, Musk and Bezos were on a collision course on two tracks: i their net worth and their space ambitions. If we said that Musk is now in first place, with an estimated value of $ 200.7 billion, Bezos is the second richest, with an estimated value of $ 192.5 billion. Arnault follows in third place, with a value of $ 174 billion, according to Forbes estimates.
On the space frontier, the two men run competing rocket companies. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, while Musk launched SpaceX in 2002. In July, Bezos flew into suborbital space on a ten-minute journey aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft. Bezos challenged Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars. In any case, the rivalry between the two is healthy and sporty. Ahead of Bezos’ space flight in July, Musk on Twitter wished him luck while two weeks ago, Bezos congratulated Musk and SpaceX on the successful launch of the Inspiration4 spacecraft for a three-day flight around Earth’s orbit. . “Another step towards a future where space is accessible to all of us,” Bezos wrote. Musk’s response: “Thank you”.