Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk has become the richest person on Earth as shares in the electric vehicle maker continued their eye-popping rise this week.
The stock gained another 5% to US$791.61 in early trade on Thursday, which happened to be the 78th anniversary of the death of Nikola Tesla, up 12% since the start of 2021 and more than 740% higher over the past 12 months.
This took the value of California-headquartered Tesla not far off US$750bn and increased the wealth of Musk, who owns 193.3mln or 20.7% of the carmaker's shares.
With the rise in the shares, Musk's net worth topped US$188.5bn and meant he overtook Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), who had been the richest person since 2017 and is currently worth around US$187bn, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon stock was up 2% after a year when its valuation rose by two thirds to US$1.6trn.
Bezos parted company with a large proportion of his wealth from his divorce in 2019 and last year sold sizeable chunks of shares three times last year to leave him with a stake of less than 11% in the company.
The Amazon boss remains number one, according to the Forbes Billionaires List, which placed Musk in second place by US$7.8bn.
Either way, South Africa-born Musk's wealth has skyrocketed even faster than Tesla’s share price as his generous pay package combined to add more than US$150bn to his net worth.
This meant in November he overtook Microsoft founder Bill Gates, having already bypassed Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, legendary investor Warren Buffett, Facebook figurehead Mark Zuckerberg and fashion magnate Bernard Arnault.
Earlier in the week, Morgan Stanley said Tesla's shares can continue to outperform as the company is the best positioned name in the automotive sector, with the investment bank upping its price target to US$810.
Btw, critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2021
About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & 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 & we destroy ourselves
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2018