Elon Musk reclaims the world's richest person title from Jeff Bezos as Tesla's stock hits an 8-month-high
- Elon Musk once again overtook Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person on Friday.
- Musk said he hopes his fortune is "enough to extend life to Mars."
- The billionaire added $60 billion to his wealth this year, driven by Tesla's robust performance and a SpaceX stock sale.
Elon Musk regained the title of the world's richest person on Friday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as his wealth climbed thanks to Tesla's soaring stock.
Tesla's shares closed at $843.03 per share Friday, up 3% on the day. That takes the automaker's year-to-date gains to roughly 20%.
That helped boost Musk's net worth to $236 billion, eclipsing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' fortune of $196 billion.
Musk responded to a Twitter user who said the Tesla boss' fortune is now equal to 861 billion dogecoins, and that he is worth more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined.
"Hopefully enough to extend life to Mars," Musk said.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's net worth has risen by $60 billion this year alone, driven by the electric-car maker's robust performance and a recent stock sale at SpaceX that took its valuation to above $100 billion.
The aerospace manufacturer is now the second-most valuable private company in the world, and a SpaceX agreement with investors added $11 billion to Musk's wealth, according to Bloomberg.
Bezos, whose personal wealth is mostly in Amazon shares, has often been switching places with Musk on the Billionaires Index this year, depending on stock performance.
Musk took a playful swipe at Bezos last week, replying to a tweet about Amazon's success with a silver-medal emoji. After the Tesla boss overtook Bezos as the world's wealthiest man last month, he told Forbes he would send the former Amazon CEO a silver medal and a giant statue of a 2.
LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stand at third and fourth positions on the Bloomberg list, with net worth of $164 billion and $130 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett sits at number 10 with a net worth of $103 billion.
Tesla is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday. It is expected to perform across the board, with Wall Street analysts' average estimates of $13.7 billion for revenue and $1.54 per share for profit.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said "an evolving green tidal wave" will push Tesla's stock higher despite a near-term chip shortage, and third-quarter earnings should be another positive catalyst for the electric-vehicle company.
"While the skeptics will remain, we believe the EV evolution is still in the early innings, with Tesla leading the charge, as today only 3% of automotive sales are EV globally and on pace to hit 10% by 2025," Ives said.
Tesla shares were trading 0.7% higher at $848.99 per share in Monday's premarket session.
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