This year, Elon Musk has been on a roll. Whether it¡¯s the success he¡¯s received through his electric car company, Tesla or through the successful launches by his rocket company SpaceX, safely sending humans to the International Space Station, twice.?
And now, Elon Musk is just $6 billion shy of being the second richest person in the world, pushing the legendary Bill Gates to the third spot. This is according to Bloomberg¡¯s Billionaires Index.
Elon?Musk¡¯s net worth spiked to $120 billion on Wednesday due to a 10 percent spike in Tesla shares after Morgan Stanley gave the stock an overweight rating. This came straight after the electric car company was added to the S&P 500 Index which already caused considerable gains, making Elon Musk the third richest man in the world (with his wealth rising to $114 billion) while pushing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the fourth position. And with the crazy spike, Musk is on the trajectory to surpass Gates¡¯s $128 billion fortune.?
In case you were wondering how the hell is this a spike in Tesla shares making Elon Musk so rich, well, that¡¯s because Musk has a massive stake in Tesla, among his other companies like SpaceX and the Boring Company.?
As of June, Musk owned 40.4 million Tesla shares that are valued at an approximate $87 billion of his net worth. Just to put things in perspective of the leap Musk has taken this year, during January 2020, he owned 38.7 million shares that were worth just $16.2 billion.?
And even though he becomes the third richest or even the second richest person on the planet, he won¡¯t be able to spend all of it instantly, since he doesn¡¯t really take a salary like regular people. Instead, he has a compensation package that pays him after he achieves certain goals (even though those payouts are massive).
It¡¯ll be interesting to see how this will spin the Gates-Musk feud if Elon actually manages to claim the spot of the second richest man in the world.?
Both Elon Musk and Bill Gates are a fair distance away from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who's currently the world's richest person by a long mile.