For the second time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been displaced by Jeff Bezos from the position of being the world’s richest person (by net worth). Tesla stocks dropped 6.9 per cent on Thursday, wiping out $11 billion from his net worth.
The drop comes just days after he regained the title from Bezos on Monday. Musk’s lead over Jeff Bezos has historically not lasted very long—on March 5, his net wealth plunged $27 billion in a day after Tesla stocks dropped amid a selloff of tech stocks, putting him $20 billion behind Bezos.
Musk reached the number one position only in 2020 as Tesla shares shot through the roof, driven by enthusiasm for the company’s dominance in electric vehicles as well as its potential for the future automarket.
As of Friday, Musk was valued at a $169 billion, while Bezos was worth $178 billion.
Not that Musk is likely to care. When he first made the number one position, his response on Twitter was “'How strange...well, back to work.”
It must be noted that the bulk of Musk’s wealth comes from his ownership of Tesla stock, which Bloomberg estimated was about 70 per cent of his net wealth in January. At the time, Musk reportedly had around $7 billion in cash and other assets. He also owns around $18.7 billion in equity in SpaceX.
