Elon Musk Becomes World's Second-Richest Surpassing Bill Gates

The billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become the world's second-richest person after surpassing philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates.

According to reports, Musk's net worth swelled by over $7.2 billion on November 23, after Tesla's market share inched closer to $500 billion. Musk's current net worth stands at $127.9 billion.

At a time when pandemic dealt a severe blow to businesses across the globe, Elon Musk added over $100.3 billion to his net worth this year.

The billionaire CEO has earlier surpassed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the ranking of the world's 500 richest people.

In January 2020, he was ranked 35th, but the tremendous demand and bull run in Tesla’s share price helped Musk gain ground and surpass other billionaires.

Starting from launching rockets into the orbit, making cash payment easy (through PayPal), launching electric vehicle, and building Hyperloops, Musk has had his finger in all possible pies. His appearance in television shows and gracing award shows makes him a favorite for tabloids.

The year 2012 was a grand year for Musk and Space X when the Falcon 9 rocket was launched into space. Falcon 9 was sent to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies and extra backup for the astronauts. This was a significant synergy as a private company was collaborating with the International Space Station.

The automotive industry is another domain Elon Musk has established his dominance in. Elon is the co-founder, CEO and product architect at Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003. This company develops affordable and eco-friendly mass-electric cars and battery products.

The unveiling of the iconic Roadster in 2008 was a milestone for Tesla. Roadster can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds and has upset many sports cars brands that were unchallenged till now.

Model S, the company’s first electric Sedan was another offering that took the industry by storm. Model S was awarded the 2013 Car of The Year award due to its capability to cover 265 miles between consecutive charges.

Philanthropist Gates had held the top two positions in the billionaire index for a long time before being leapfrogged by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos in 2017. Incidentally, Gates has donated more than $27 billion to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, since 2006, according to Bloomberg.

The list of billionaires consists of Indian capitalist Mukesh Ambani, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos among others. Since the beginning of 2020, the collective gain by these members stands at $1.3 trillion.