Elon Musk becomes second-richest person after boost in Tesla shares

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk on Monday overtook Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world as Musk’s net worth increased from $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion, driven by a surge in the company’s shares.

This year, Musk has added $100.3 billion to his net worth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Elon Musk’s wealth ranks have mainly been driven by Tesla, which is about three-quarters. His net worth is mainly comprised of Tesla shares that are valued more than four times compared to his stake in SpaceX.

Bill Gates held the top ranking for years before he was overtaken by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in 2017. Bill Gates’s net worth $127.7 billion right now.

Net worth of Gates would have been much higher had he not made donations to charities. Since 2006, Gates has donated more than $27 billion to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates have commented on each other at times during this year.

In September this year, Gates said that he doesn’t think it’s fair to refer to Musk as “the next Steve Jobs”. Before that, in February, Musk tweeted that his conversations with Gates have been “underwhelming” and Gates said Musk’s “positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments”.