Elon Musk Is World’s Richest Person Again After Tesla Stocks Surge 100%

Elon Musk has reclaimed his title as the world’s richest person, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

In December last year, Bernard Arnault, CEO of the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton, dethroned the Tesla and Twitter CEO from the top rank. Mr Musk was at the second spot for more than two months. According to Bloomberg, a surge in Tesla stock has sent Mr Musk back to the top of the Billionaires Index.

According to the estimates, as of Monday, after the markets closed, Mr Musk’s net worth was approximately $187.1 billion, surpassing Mr Arnault’s $185.3 billion fortune.

Mr Musk’s fortune has grown due to a 70 per cent increase in Tesla’s stock price this year. It is nearly 100 per cent higher from its intraday low on January 6 as investors re-invest in riskier growth stocks amid signs of economic strength and a slower pace of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes, as per Bloomberg.

However, Tesla chief’s net worth fell by over $200 billion between November and December last year, which was regarded as one of the largest losses of wealth in recent history.

The rapid decrease in the value of Tesla shares at the time caused the sudden crash. The company had its worst year ever on Wall Street last year, losing $700 billion because of investor apprehensions regarding the effects of Covid-19 in China and Mr Musk’s contentious takeover of Twitter.

Amid all this, the Twitter CEO is making cost cuts at his newly acquired company for which he spent $44 billion. He had tweeted in November that the microblogging site was losing nearly $4 million a day. 

tRecently, Twitter announced its eighth round of layoffs and more than 50 people were fired by Mr Musk-led administration. This comes after the billionaire cut more than 3,700 jobs at Twitter or half of the company’s workforce, a move to drive down costs following his acquisition.