The share price was buoyed after the US Democrats won control of the Senate, making Joe Biden’s incoming administration’s green agenda more of a surety.
According to the Bloomberg billionaires index, the 4.8 percent rise in Tesla’s share price makes Musk $1.5bn wealthier than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The company is more valuable than the world's most profitable carmakers combined.
.@elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion.
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) January 7, 2021
Responding to the news on Twitter, Musk – who also founded the aerospace venture SpaceX – wrote "how strange”, followed by a post that said “well, back to work”.
In an older tweet, Musk said: ”About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth, and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves.”
Bezos had held the mantle as the world’s richest person since October 2017.
