Elon Musk surpasses Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person as Tesla’s market cap inches closer to $500 billion

• The billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now leapfrogged Bill Gates to grab the world’s second-richest ranking.
• Musk’s net worth swelled by more than $7.2 billion on November 23, driven by another surge in the Tesla share price.
• In January 2020, he ranked 35th, but the tremendous rise in Tesla’s share price has helped him gain ground and surpass other billionaires in the world.
• Since the beginning of this year, the members of the Bloomberg Index have collectively gained 23% — or $1.3 trillion.

After beating Mark Zuckerberg in world rich list ranking — the billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now leapfrogged Bill Gates to grab the world’s second-richest ranking.

Musk’s net worth rose more than $7.2 billion on November 23, driven by another surge in the Tesla share price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. The current net worth of Elon Musk stands at $127.9 billion.

This comes as one of the biggest gains in the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people — Musk has added over $100.3 billion to his net worth this year.

In January 2020, he ranked 35th, but the soaring Tesla share price has driven his ranking to surpass other billionaires in the world.

The jump in Musk’s fortune came as the shares of the electric car-maker Tesla soared as the electric car makers market cap neared $500 billion on Monday.

Gates would have been on the top, had it not been for his philanthropy

This is the second time in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaire Index that Bill Gates has ranked lower than number two. Gates has held the top position in the billionaire index before being leapfrogged by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos in 2017.

Bill Gates’ current net worth is $127.7 billion, and he would have ranked on the top had he not donated so prodigiously to charities over the years. Gates has donated more than $27 billion to his namesake foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, since 2006, according to Bloomberg.

A lucrative year for billionaires

It’s just not Musk; so far, the year has been a lucrative one for the world’s wealthiest people despite the pandemic bringing businesses to a grinding halt.

From Jeff Bezos to Mukesh Ambani and Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, all have added billions of dollars to their net worth since the beginning of this year. Since the beginning of this year, the members of the Bloomberg Index have collectively gained 23% — or $1.3 trillion.

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