Arushi AgarwalThis week has been very important as it observed a relentless increase in the net worths of the world’s richest people. The rarefied centibillionaire club, which once had 3 members- Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has been expanded to 4 members with the newest edition of Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk. Musk, who is a regular in the news for a variety of reasons is back again for surpassing Zuckerberg to become the third richest person in the world. According to the Bloomsberg Billionaire Index, Zuckerberg whose net worth stood at $110.8 billion has been crossed by Musk who now stands at $115.4 billion. The credit for this goes to the forward stock split undergone by Tesla. The big boost in the value of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) and stock price of Tesla has led Musk’s wealth snowballing by $87.8 billion. He has also made the largest deal ever with the board of directors the success of which could yield him over $50 billion provided the required goals are met.
Tesla has been amongst the largest beneficiaries of retail investing ever since the lockdowns happened worldwide due to which it has made it to the list of favorites of the amateur investors on Robinhood Financial, an online trading firm. Evidence of that was visible when within 4 hours on just 1 day in August, about 40,000 Robinhood accounts added Tesla shares. Moreover, Tesla’s popularity is not just in the US but spreads to South Korea as well. South Korean retail investors now hold about a 1% stake in this company. Amounting to everything Tesla shares have surged approximately 500%. It now holds a market value of $464 billion which is even more than that of Walmart Inc., the largest company in the US by revenue.
Talking about the richest people of the world, another name of MacKenzie Scott has been added as the new richest woman in the world. Her networth shot up to $66.4 billion as a result of her divorce with Jeff Bezos and receiving 4% stake in Amazon.com Inc. for divorce settlement. She surpassed L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers to reach the top.
Even after becoming worth $115 billion, Musk has a long way to go before he becomes the richest person since Jeff Bezos’ networth is more than $200 billion and will probably only increase in the coming time.