No, Elon Musk Is Not The Richest Person In The World—Yet

Despite seeing his net worth skyrocket in recent months—and a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday that he’s now the world’s richest person—Elon Musk remains the second-richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ estimates.

Shares of Musk’s electric-vehicle maker Tesla TSLA rose by 7% as of 2:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, pushing Musk’s net worth up by $9.8 billion, to $175.2 billion. That makes him $22 billion richer than the planet’s third-wealthiest person, French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, but still $11 billion behind the world’s number one, Amazon AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos. Forbes estimates that Bezos has a net worth of $186.8 billion.

Musk’s net worth has grown at an astronomical clip over the past year. He has added nearly $150 billion to his fortune since March 2020, when he was worth $24.6 billion. Much of that increase comes from Tesla’s skyrocketing share price, which rose more than 720% in 2020. It has gained another 10% so far over the first week of 2021. 

As Tesla’s stock soared ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500 Index on December 21, Musk surpassed Facebook FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who is worth $98.2 billion today) to become the world’s fourth-richest person in early November, then leapfrogged Microsoft MSFT cofounder Bill Gates (worth $121.9 billion today) for the number three spot.

Musk owns around 21% of Tesla’s shares, plus a stake in private rocket company SpaceX. Tesla stock still sits at record highs, now trading for over $800 per share. The company’s $765 billion market cap makes it by far the most valuable car company in the world.