Elon Musk overtakes Bezos to become the world's richest person: Bloomberg

New York: Elon Musk overtook Jeff Bezos as the world's wealthiest person for the first time on Thursday, based on calculations using the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

"How strange," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted in response to the news. "Well, back to work."

Tesla shares closed 8% higher at $816 on Thursday, boosting the net worth of its CEO to over $186 billion. Meanwhile, Amazon's shares closed less than 1% higher, lifting Bezos' fortune to about $185 billion.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Musk and Bezos' fortunes as $181 billion and $184 billion respectively as of Wednesday's close.

Musk's wealth on paper reflects his roughly 20% stake in Tesla and 48% stake in SpaceX, as well as 57 million vested Tesla stock options, Bloomberg says. Bezos' net worth largely derives from his 11% stake in Amazon.

The Tesla CEO's fortune has ballooned by more than $150 billion in the past year, Bloomberg said, after the electric-vehicle company's stock price rocketed up 740% in 2020.

Musk and Bezos have left other billionaires in their rearview mirrors. The world's third-richest person, Bill Gates, was worth $132 billion as of Wednesday's close.