Elon Musk has overtaken Bill Gates to become the world’s second richest man as Tesla’s share price continues to soar.
The electric car company’s value has risen following the announcement that it would join the S&P 500 index, and was valued at $521.49 (£390.20) a share ahead of Tuesday’s trading on Wall Street.
It meant that Mr Musk, 49, is now worth more than $128 billion (£95bn) as he owns 20% of all of the company’s shares, which have risen by more than 675% since 25 November last year, when they were valued at $67.27 (£50.33) each.
A 3% rise for Tesla stock in early deals on Tuesday meant Tesla’s market value passed the $500bn mark.
The limelight-friendly Musk started this year in 37th position on the rich list. Last week he overtook Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in third position.
The deposition of Bill Gates, who is also worth $128bn, marks only the second time the Microsoft founder has dropped out of the top two on the Bloomberg billionaires index, although Mr Gates could conceivably be ranked higher if he did not persistently donate billions of his personal wealth to charity.
