Elon Musk, the outspoken and envelope-pushing chief executive of Tesla, overtook Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to become the world’s wealthiest person, US media reported Thursday.
Musk is a major shareholder of the electric car company and has benefited from Tesla’s surging share price over the last year. CNBC estimated Musk’s wealth at $185 billion.
The
distinction is the latest superlative for the South African-born Musk,
who leads the aerospace venture SpaceX in addition to Tesla, which has
become a pacesetter for the car industry as conventional automakers try
to catch up to Tesla’s lead in electric autos.
Tesla
had a strong 2020 as it ramped up auto production, broke ground on new
factories and reported a series of profitable quarters that enabled
shares to rise more than 700 percent during the year as it was added to
the prestigious S&P 500 index.
Musk
has hit a stride after stumbling in 2018, when US securities regulators
required the Tesla chief to step down as chairman and pay $20 million
to settle charges he defrauded investors with false claims on Twitter in
August about a possible bid to take the company private, which was
quickly aborted.
Shares
of Tesla surged 5.9 percent to $800.43 in late morning trading, lifting
the company’s market capitalization above $750 billion.
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