Retaining your position as a ‘Billionaire‘ is a tough job. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos overtook Elon Musk to become the World’s Richest Man yet again. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos’s current net worth stood around USD 197 billion, while Musk’s dipped to USD 192 billion. The Index reveals that in the past year, Musk lost about USD 31 billion, while the Amazon founder gained USD 23 billion. Tesla’s shares had also plunged by over 7 per cent.
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The Billionaire History
In January 2021, Musk toppled Bezos to become the richest person in the world, with a net worth of USD 195 billion. Then business tycoon Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH, overtook Musk as the world’s richest in December 2022 when Musk’s Tesla witnessed a steep drop in value.
Two years later in May 2023, Musk had dethroned Arnault to reclaim that coveted title. According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Arnault is now the second richest with a net worth of USD 195 billion. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was at USD 176 billion and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was at USD 150 billion.
What Caused Jeff To Overtake Elon
Musk, who also heads X and SpaceX, has seen his riches fall by more than $30 billion as Tesla’s share price has dropped 25 per cent in recent months. Adding to Musk’s woes, was the Delaware court ruling that struck down his enormous Tesla compensation agreement worth $55.8 billion, originally reached in 2018. It was termed as excessive.
Meanwhile, Bezos, who no longer runs Amazon, has benefited from the e-commerce giant’s rising stock price. Even after recently selling off $8.5 billion in shares, he remains the company’s largest stockholder. The net worth gap between the two billionaires, which once stood at $142 billion, has remarkably shrunk over the years.
Both Amazon and Tesla are part of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks that drive the American stock market. While Amazon has seen its shares more than double since late 2022, Tesla’s stock price has plummeted by approximately 50 per cent compared to its peak in 2021.
Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani feature in the 11th and 13th spots, respectively, with a net worth of approx $115 billion and $104 billion. Theirs is a different world altogether, right? Let’s see if Jeff Bezos can retain his position as #1 or if he would be replaced by Musk or another billionaire again.
