Tesla’s Elon Musk is back on top of Bloomberg’s list of wealthiest people in the world after Tesla shares saw a spike of over 70 per cent in 2023.
Musk has reclaimed his place as the world’s richest person after a rollercoaster few months that saw his wealth plummet amid a sell-off of tech stocks and multiple controversies. As the market closed on Monday, Musk’s net worth ended at about $187.1 billion, as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, nudging aside Bernard Arnault, whose family own the world’s leading luxury group, LVMH. Bloomberg valued Arnault’s fortune at $185 billion.
Arnault had unseated Musk last year as Tesla shares fell in December. The Tesla stock price hit a low of $108.10 on Jan. 3, 2023, according to historical data on Yahoo Finance. The carmaker’s stock closed at $207.63 on Monday.
After the tumult of last year, in which Musk purchased Twitter after some uncertainty about whether he’d follow through on the deal, and a lawsuit at the time by Tesla shareholders, Musk has had a better 2023 so far.
However, Musk’s fortune remains far below a peak of more than $300 billion in late 2021. Since then, he funded the $44 billion buyout of Twitter by selling about $20 billion in Tesla shares.
Tesla’s drop in value in 2022 came as tech stocks suffered amid increasing interest rates. But since January, investors have piled back into Tesla even as Mr Musk continues to be distracted by running Twitter.
It might have taken a bit longer for Musk to overtake the CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, Bernard Arnault, after he revealed that he gave some 11.6 million Tesla shares to unnamed charitable causes. The stocks were worth about $2.4 billion, based on average prices on the days Musk donated these securities.
This disclosure comes as Musk narrowed the gap to Arnault to less than $10 billion amid signs of growing demands for Tesla’s electric vehicles in 2023.
The Tesla CEO and the biggest individual shareholder, previously donated shares in the company in 2021 worth about $6 billion, making it one of the largest donations in history.
At Number 3 on the list is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with an estimated fortune of $117 billion.
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