Musk beats Gates: Tesla CEO is now the world’s second-richest person

Eccentric serial entrepreneur (and Twitter memelord) Elon Musk has officially overtaken Microsoft’s Bill Gates as the second richest man in the world.

As per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, the net worth of the revolutionary tech giant has increased by $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion, thanks to the surge in Tesla’s share price. Musk has added a staggering amount of $100.3 billion to his net worth this year, which happens to be the most anyone has accumulated in this period.

The coronavirus pandemic has especially been lucrative for billionaires in general, whose net worths have increase over $1.2 trillion since January.

The rise of Elon Musk wealth majorly comes from his electric vehicle manufacturing giant Tesla, whose market value is approaching $500bn. As per details, about three-quarters of Musk’s net worth is comprised of Tesla shares.

Just days ago, it was learnt that Tesla Inc is set to join the S&P 500 in December, which would be a major win for Chief Executive Elon Musk that boosted the electric car maker’s shares 14pc.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the company would join the S&P 500 index prior to the opening of trading on Dec. 21, potentially in two tranches making it easier for investment funds to digest.

“(Tesla) will be one of the largest weight additions to the S&P 500 in the last decade, and consequently will generate one of the largest funding trades in S&P 500 history,” S&P Dow Jones Indices said.

With a stock market value over $400 billion, Tesla will be among the most valuable companies ever added to the widely followed stock market index, larger than 95% of the S&P 500’s existing components.