Business as Usual

Elon Musk Just Became the Second Richest Person in the World

Okay, that's pretty impressive.
Victor Tangermann Avatar
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has dethroned Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Image: TED Conference via Flickr

Tres Commas

Elon Musk has dethroned fellow billionaire Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, after a surge in Tesla’s share price made his net worth soar to $127.8 billion.

Musk has pegged his fortunes to several boundary-pushing industries including electric carmaker Tesla and space company SpaceX — both long shots at their inception that have succeeded beyond early observers’ wildest expectations.

Competitor Space

Gates remains hot on Musk’s heels, though, with an estimated net worth of $127.7 billion.

The king of the hill is still Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who — like several other billionaires — added unfathomable amounts of money to his net worth in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Electric Slide

Tesla became a S&P 500 index company last week, driving up market shares.

If everything goes according to Musk’s plan, the CEO could take away over $55 billion in a record pay deal that was approved in March 2018. To cash in, though, Musk will have to lead Tesla to a valuation of $650 billion by 2028.

READ MORE: Elon Musk overtakes Bill Gates to be world’s second-richest person [The Guardian]

More on Musk: Elon Musk: First Mars City Will Start With Glass Domes

I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.