Mar 6, 2024,10:48am EST
Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, momentarily surpassed Elon Musk as the wealthiest person in the United States on Wednesday, as indicated by Forbes’ calculations. However, Musk swiftly reclaimed the title shortly after, coinciding with Tesla’s stock market challenges that led to a significant decline in Musk’s net worth.
Here are some essential points:
- Bezos briefly held the title with a net worth of $195 billion, exceeding Musk’s $193 billion fortune when the stock market opened early Wednesday. However, Musk regained the top position as Tesla shares reduced their daily losses from 4% to 2%.
- This occurrence marked the first time since August 19, 2021, that Musk ranked outside the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings.
- Musk began the year as the No. 1 billionaire on Forbes’ real-time list but lost the top spot to France’s Bernard Arnault in late January after a Delaware judge voided his $51 billion Tesla compensation package.
- Musk also temporarily lost the No. 1 spot in late 2022 due to Tesla’s stock plunge following news of production challenges and investor concerns about Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. However, he reclaimed the title of the world’s richest person on June 8, 2023.
- Musk entered the top three in 2021 with an estimated net worth of $151 billion, ranking second behind Bezos on the billionaires list for that year.
- In a tangent, Musk humorously mentioned in 2021 that he planned to send a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Bezos when he surpassed him as the world’s richest man, along with a silver medal.
- Musk’s fortune decreased by $55 billion on Wednesday compared to the end of 2023, with Tesla’s share price declining nearly 30% year-to-date. This decline significantly impacted the value of Musk’s approximately 21% equity stake in the electric vehicle manufacturer.
- Bezos and Musk collectively possess a net worth of approximately $390 billion, which is roughly equivalent to the gross domestic product of Hong Kong in 2023.
- Bezos’ wealth primarily stems from his approximately 10% stake in Amazon, while Musk’s fortune is heavily tied to his Tesla stake.
- Notably, besides competing for the title of America’s richest individual, both billionaires are also rivals in the realm of private space travel, with Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX competing for NASA contracts.