Elon Musk loses world's richest person title to THIS person as Tesla shares tumble

By Team Asianet Newsable | First Published Mar 5, 2024, 1:08 PM IST

For the first time since 2021, Bezos has reclaimed the top position as the world's richest person. This shift comes as Tesla shares continue to decline, while Amazon shares have been steadily rising, narrowing the wealth gap between the two billionaires in recent months.

For the first time in more than nine months, Elon Musk is no longer the world's richest person. Musk lost his top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to Jeff Bezos following Monday's 7.2% decline in Tesla Inc. shares. Bezos is worth $200.3 billion, whereas Musk is now worth $197.7 billion. Since 2021, Bezos, the 60-year-old founder of Amazon.com Inc., has not finished first on Bloomberg's list of the richest individuals.

The 52-year-old Musk and Bezos's wealth disparity, which was once as high as $142 billion, has been closing as the prices of Amazon and Tesla's shares move in different ways. While both are among the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks that have propelled US equity markets, Amazon shares have more than doubled since late 2022 and are within striking distance of a record high. Tesla is down about 50% from its 2021 peak.

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After initial statistics revealed that shipments from Tesla's Shanghai facility plummeted to the lowest level in almost a year, the company's shares plunged on Monday. Meanwhile, Amazon just had its largest increase in online sales since the beginning of the epidemic.

Musk's wealth could take a further hit after a Delaware judge struck down his $55 billion pay package at Tesla, where he's chief executive. Options that were included in the voided plan are one of Musk's largest assets, alongside his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. The Bloomberg index continues to include them in its calculations of his wealth.

Bezos's 9% ownership position in Amazon accounts for the great bulk of his wealth. Even after selling 50 million shares for almost $8.5 billion last month, he remains the largest stakeholder in the online store. For Bezos, being atop the wealth rankings is a familiar perch. He first overtook Microsoft Inc. co-founder Bill Gates as the world's richest person in 2017. With a net worth of $197.5 billion, 74-year-old Bernard Arnault is the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the biggest luxury goods manufacturer in the world. He is also one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

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