On Tuesday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos overtook Elon Musk to reclaim the title of world’s richest person, after shares of Tesla slid more than 2.4%. The Tesla CEO surpassed Bezos in January to become the richest person in the world.
Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos reclaimed his title as the world’s richest person after he leapfrogged Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. Musk saw his net worth slide by $3.9 billion on Tuesday as Tesla shares closed at $796.22, down more than 2.4%. The 49-year-old entrepreneur surpassed Bezos in January to become the richest person in the world, on the back of Tesla’s surging share price and his generous pay package. Musk gave back the title of world’s richest person to Bezos just as quickly as he rose in the rankings. Until last month, Bezos had been the richest man since 2017.
Bezos once again became the world’s richest person as he prepares to leave his post later this year. Earlier this month, Bezos announced he would turn the helm over to Amazon’s top cloud boss Andy Jassy. Bezos is expected to still keep an eye on the company he founded, but he will have more time to focus on other projects, including his Blue Origin rocket company and The Washington Post, as well as philanthropic ventures the Bezos Earth Fund and the Amazon Day 1 Fund.
With a fortune of $191.2 billion, Amazon founder is back at the top of the rich list after being pushed to the second spot for six weeks in January 2021 owing to a continued rally in Tesla stocks. Due to the recent movement in stock prices of Amazon and Tesla, Bezos is now $995 million richer than Musk.
Tesla’s market capitalisation surged in 2020 as the electric car company met its delivery targets during the year pushing its stock price higher. Tesla CEO shepherded major upheaval on Wall Street with his tweets which caused led to a rally in shares such as GameStop Corp, Etsy Shopify, CD Projekt SA and Signal.
He also stirred up the price of Bitcoin and even Dogecoin, a little-known cryptocurrency that surged after his tweet earlier this month. Meanwhile, Bitcoin raced past $50,000 days after Tesla disclosed that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. However, despite Musk’s apparently persistent social media presence, Tesla’s shares have dipped almost 10 per cent from January 26 peak.
