Bernard Arnault has been a centi-billionaire before. Mark and Elon are newcomers to the club. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth topped $100 billion for the first time on August 7, after Facebook stock hit what was then an all-time high of $272 per share. FB proceeded to trade all the way up to $304 a share, briefly giving Mark what is now his peak net worth of $115 billion. FB has since retreated down to around $270 a share. Elon Musk’s net worth topped $100 billion for the first time on August 26. That was exactly 90 days ago. At that point Tesla was trading at $430 per share. One week ago Tesla stock increased 13% in a day after it was announced that the company would soon be added to the S&P 500 index. [BTW – Tesla’s stock split 5-1 in mid-September. To keep the numbers easy to follow, we’re referencing split-adjusted share prices in this article, even for when the stock technically hadn’t split yet.] After Tesla’s S&P announcement, Elon’s net worth jumped $15 billion basically overnight. That increase in wealth allowed Mr. Musk to overtake Mark Zuckerberg as the world’s third-richest person for the first time. At that point, the only two people above Elon were Bill Gates ($129 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($184 billion). Fast forward to this morning. As of this writing, a single share of Tesla would set you back $543. It has increased 25% in the three months since he first became a centi-billionaire. As of this writing, Bill Gates’ net worth is a shade under $128 billion. At $543 a share, Elon Musk’s net worth is $128.1 billion. That makes Elon Musk the second-richest person in the world for the first time ever. UPDATE Tesla stock closed the trading day at $555 per share and is actually up to $562 per share in after-hours trades. So Elon’s net worth actually ended the day at $136 BILLION!
The Richest Person in the World
What would it take for Elon to become the richest person in the world? Using the after-hours numbers, Elon is $47 billion shy of Jeff Bezos’ $183 billion fortune. If it sounds totally insane to imagine a world where Elon could increase his net worth by $47 billion to overtake Bezos, consider this: When Elon started the year on January 1, 2020, his net worth was $28 billion. That’s not a typo. Elon’s fortune has increased by $100 BILLION so far this year. So $47 billion is totally achievable on his current trajectory.
The top 10 richest people in the world right now:
#1: Jeff Bezos – $182 billion #2: Elon Musk – $136 billion #3: Bill Gates – $129 billion #4: Bernard Arnault – $105 billion #5: Mark Zuckerberg – $105 billion #6: Warren Buffet – $88 billion #7: Larry Page – $83 billion #8: Steve Ballmer – $81 billion #9: Sergey Brin – $80 billion #10: Mukesh Ambani – $77 billion Do you foresee a future where Elon Musk is the richest person on the planet? If his net worth increased $100 billion in 2020, do you think it will increase another $100 billion over the next 12 months?
