Elon Musk Becomes Second Richest Person In World, Topples Bill Gates

The jump in Musk's fortune came as the shares of the electric car-maker Tesla soared and its market cap neared $500 billion on Monday.

(Image: AFP)

New Delhi: Keeping up his upward ascent, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk on Monday surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s second richest person.  Even as the businesses around the world are witnessing major losses amid the grim economic scenario globally, Musk has been able to maintain an upward trajectory all through the year, having added $ 100 billion to his net worth. Last week, Musk had surpassed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to become the third richest man in the world, and now he has even surpassed Bill Gates to the second spot in Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world's 500 richest people. The jump in Musk's fortune came as the shares of the electric car-maker Tesla soared and its market cap neared $500 billion on Monday. The wealth gap between Musk and Gate is not huge, and it is possible they could switch places again. It is only the second time in the index’s eight-year-year history when Microsoft Co founder Bill Gates has ranked lower than number two. Gates had been safely placed at the top spot for years until he was surpassed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in the year 2017. However it is to be noted that Gates charity acts account for  a huge chunk of the his wealth which would add to his net worth if not given away. He has given more than $27 billion to his namesake foundation since 2006.