Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos, who has an estimated net worth of $199.6 billion, is once again the second-wealthiest person in the world as of Thursday, overtaking Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $197.4 billion, and marking the second switch of the week for the battling billionaires.
After jostling for the position of second-wealthiest person in the world more than a dozen times in March, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are competing closely once again.
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Key Takeaways
- Bezos overtook Musk Thursday after losing his position as wealthiest person in the U.S. to him on Monday, following a surge in Tesla stock that vaulted Musk above Bezos and made him about $25 billion richer than he was just six days prior.
- Bezos’ estimated net worth was up about $2.5 billion on Thursday at noon EDT, while Musk’s fortune had fallen about $276 million, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List.
- The wealthiest person in the world is still LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, who was worth an estimated $206.9 billion as of Thursday morning.
Big Number
1.84%. That’s how much Amazon’s stock was up at noon EDT on Thursday. Tesla’s share price, in comparison, was up about 0.08%.
Key Background
The two billionaires have been going back-and-forth for the position of second wealthiest person in the world for months—they flip-flopped at least 13 times in March. But, before March, Musk had steadily held the first or second spots on the list: March 6 was the first time since Aug. 19, 2021 that he placed outside of the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings. Bezos had a resurgence of wealth earlier this year and Musk’s wealth has fluctuated as Tesla—which just announced hundreds more cuts among its staff this week—has struggled, leading to the ongoing back-and-forth.
