Elon Musk has toppled Bill Gates as the world’s second-richest person, only a week after the Tesla co-founder overtook Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to become the third-richest.
Driven by a further surge in Tesla’s share price, the 49-year-old entrepreneur’s net worth rose by $7.2bn (£5.4bn) to $127.9bn. It has soared by more than $100bn this year – outranking everyone else on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which lists the world’s 500 richest people.
In January, Musk was in 35th place.
The maverick chief executive of the electric car company is now ranked immediately behind the Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos.
Tesla’s shares have surged since the company was selected to join the S&P 500 index of leading US companies a week ago, driving its market value close to $500bn. Three-quarters of Musk’s net worth comes from Tesla shares.
