For ages, the richest man in the world was Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon (and numerous other things, we assume). The torch has now been passed to Elon Musk, the mind behind SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and other ventures we haven’t been told about because they involve the ongoing construction of a moon-base (probably).

The cost of being Elon Musk

CNBC reports that Elon Musk’s personal worth is now sitting at over $185 billion… that’s with a b. This is thanks to a jump in Tesla’s share price, which closed at $816 per share yesterday and gave the electric car company a value of more than $800 billion — which is edging ever closer to that magical trillion-dollar valuation that Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all previously reached.

What’s remarkable about Musk taking over as the richest man in the world is how quickly it happened. At the beginning of 2020, Musk’s personal fortune was ‘just’ $27 billion — which is a problem we’d all love to have. But Tesla increased heavily in value over the following twelve months, catapulting Musk to the head of the line as of this week.

Jess Bezos, we reckon, won’t let this stand but — Ars Technica reports — Musk could potentially increase his fortunes by hitting certain milestones at Tesla. Doing that would increase the stock Musk holds in the company, greatly increasing his personal wealth. Which he’ll probably use to become the first emperor of Mars.

This isn’t the first time Bezos and Musk have faced off. Last year they argued rather convincingly on the internet, as cast members from the original Star Trek. The effect is… uncanny. And strangely appropriate, this week.

Source: CNBC