Elon Musk is on the cusp of being the world's richest man again after Tesla stock's huge rebound

• The recent rally in Tesla stock is helping CEO Elon Musk pile on wealth and come close to reclaiming the title of world's richest man.
• Musk's net worth was at $179 billion by Friday's market close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The recent rally in Tesla stock is helping CEO Elon Musk close in on becoming the world's richest man once again.

Tesla stock has nearly erased its losses from 2022, and is up 60% this year. And if this trend continues, Elon Musk could soon overtake LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault as the world's richest person.

Much of Musk's wealth is tied to Tesla stock, and is he was worth $179 billion by Friday's market close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's just $6 billion behind Arnault, who surpassed Musk in December while Tesla stock was still slumping.

Musk actually lost a bit of ground on Friday as Tesla shares fell 5% while US-listed shares of LVMH slipped just 1.1%, widening the wealth gap with Arnault by $3 billion from Thursday.

Still, Musk has added $42 billion so far this year versus $23.4 billion for Arnault. And the uptrend is in line with the broader wealth gains for billionaires in 2023.

In fact, the $140 billion growth in the personal fortunes of the 10 richest people is larger than the market capitalization of coffee giant Starbucks.

Tesla stock slumped 65% in 2022 as rising interest rates dampened investors' appetite for riskier bets and shareholders worried that Musk's chaotic $44 billion takeover of Twitter would drag on Tesla's share price.

But Tesla has staged a dramatic comeback in the early going of this year, thanks to investors' growing faith that interest-rate cuts are coming and a strong fourth-quarter earnings report that beat Wall Street forecasts.