Elon Musk Is Now The Fourth Richest Person: Report

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become the fourth richest person in the world on August 18, according to news agency Bloomberg. Mr Musk's net worth rose to $84.8 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is a daily ranking of the world's richest people, after Tesla Inc shares soared 11 per cent on August 17. In the process, Elon Musk's net worth soared past French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, the current wealthiest non-American on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and is now just within $15 billion of social media giant Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who holds the number three position among the world's 500 richest people.

Reliance Industries' chairman, Mukesh Ambani, had become the fourth richest person on August 8. He is, however, now placed sixth on the billionaires list, with total net worth of $78.8 billion. Mr Ambani still remains the highest-ranking among the fourteen Indians in this prestigious list.

Mr Musk's wealth has grown by a whopping $57.2 billion this year, marking the second largest increase on the index after Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

In July, Elon Musk had overtaken Warren Buffett to become the seventh richest person in the world. Mr Buffett had donated Berkshire Hathaway shares worth $2.9 billion to charity, causing a decline in his net worth.

Tesla's shares surged as much as 500 per cent over the past year as the company pushed up the sales of its Model 3 sedan. Tesla shares gained 339 per cent this year itself on hopes of the company's inclusion in the S&P 500 Index.

Technology shares have been outperformers this year as the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant push for online work has lifted the fortunes of tech companies. It is noteworthy that tech giants Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook are three wealthiest people on Earth today.