Tesla CEO, Elon Musk overtakes Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185 billion. An increase in his company’s share price on Thursday, January 7, pushed Musk past Jeff Bezos, who had been the richest person since 2017 and is currently worth about $184 billion. Reacting to the news, Musk tweeted: “How strange. Well, back to work ...”

The 49-year-old's electric car company has surged in value this year and hit a market value of $700bn (£516bn) for the first time on Wednesday.

The South Africa-born only just passed Bill Gates in November to become the second-richest person in the world. Musk has gained more wealth over the past 12 months than Bill Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion.

Bill Gates is now a distant third at $132 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Tesla’s shares were recently trading at about $790, up more than 4% in trading Thursday. The company’s market value has grown to $737.6 billion.

Elon Musk saw his personal wealth skyrocket in 2020 to the tune of more than $150 billion, in large part because he owns a lot of Tesla stock, about 20 percent of the company.