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0 2 0 SpaceX founder Elon Musk looks on after being recognized by U.S. President Donald Trump at NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building after watching the successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station, becoming the first people to launch into space from American soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. (Photo by Paul Hennessy / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Tesla (TSLA) chief Elon Musk has become the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185bn (£136bn).
Shares in Musk’s electric vehicle and clean energy company surged on Thursday pushing him past Amazon (AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos, who had been the world’s wealthiest person since 2017.
Bezos’ net worth currently stands at about $184bn.
Musk’s growth in fortune over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history. Musk’s net worth at the beginning of 2020 was around $27bn, placing him just inside the list of the world’s top 50 richest people.
Musk passed business tycoon Warren Buffett in July to become the seventh richest person. In November, Musk pipped Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates to become the second richest person.
Tesla’s rocketing share price — which has increased more than nine-fold over the past year — as well as his salary as CEO of the company have added more than $150bn to Musk’s net worth over the past 12 months.
Amazon has been one of the winners of the coronavirus pandemic with the demand for online shopping and home delivery services surging in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns and social distancing restrictions around the world.
However, the company’s share price has remained more muted due to the potential for increased regulation in the US.
Tesla’s shares were trading at about $806, up more than 6% in trading on Thursday. The company’s market value has grown to $737.6bn, according to CNBC.
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