The maverick chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk, has overtaken Amazon chief, Jeff Bezos, as world’s richest person after shares in the electric car company he co-founded soared on hopes that the United States Senate would usher in a new green agenda.
A 4.8 percent rise in Tesla’s share price was enough to push Musk into the top spot according to the Bloomberg billionaires’ index, which tracks the daily changes in the fortunes of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
The 49-year-old entrepreneur’s net worth hit $186bn (£136bn) at 10:15 a.m. in New York on Wednesday, making him $1.5bn richer than Bezos, who had held the top spot since October 2017.
The South African-born billionaire responded to the news of his new status as the world’s richest person on Twitter.
“How strange” and “well, back to work,” he simply tweeted.
