Elon Musk now the richest person in the world

If you worry about Elon Musk being an evil genius you would be alarmed to know that he has now been crowned the richest person in the world, passing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos this Thursday.

The achievement is based on an amazing run-up in Tesla’s share price, the company gaining 7.94% in trading in a single day today, after rocketing nearly 10x over the last year.

Bloomberg reports that Elon Musk is now worth $194.8 billion, or $9.5 billion more than Bezos, who did, of course, lost some 1/4 of assets to his recent divorce.

Tesla’s share price has been driven by unexpected strength in EV sales during the pandemic, the company making a consistent profit over the last 5 quarters, and meeting its EV production goals for 2020, producing 508,000 Teslas over the 12 month period. Tesla’s inclusion in the S&P500 also helped boost its price, and the company will likely soon be part of the retirement fund of most Americans.

Elon Musks burgeoning wealth places his 2018 fine when he had to pay $20 million to the SEC for claiming funding was secured to take Tesla private at $420, into hilarious perspective – it is now less than 0.01% of his current wealth.