Following a jump in Amazon stock and a dip in Tesla this year, Jeff Bezos is on track to surpass Elon Musk as the world’s wealthiest person by almost $5 billion.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Amazon’s founder and executive chairman has increased his estimated worth by $18 billion this year. That is mostly due to a 12% increase in Amazon shares this year, which has propelled him to second place on the wealthy list, with a net worth of $195 billion.
Musk’s fortune has decreased from $29 billion to $200 billion, primarily due to a 27% drop in Tesla’s price.
Bloomberg’s estimate still includes the value of approximately 304 million stock options under Musk’s 2018 pay plan, which was recently ruled invalid by a Delaware court.
As a result, Bezos is less than 3% behind Elon Musk in net worth and might soon overtake him if Amazon continues to grow or Tesla continues to decline.
At the end of December, Bezos owned 988 million shares, or roughly 10% of Amazon, valued at $168 billion as of Monday’s close.
Meanwhile, Musk owns over 411 million Tesla shares, representing a roughly 13% interest in the carmaker and valued approximately $73 billion. The remainder of his fortune comes from his investments in SpaceX, Twitter, and other companies.
It is worth noting that Bezos intends to sell up to 50 million Amazon shares, valued at $8.5 billion, by the end of January next year, according to his company’s annual report released last week. He implemented the trading strategy in November.
Bezos led the Bloomberg index from 2017 until January 2021, when a spike in Tesla stock pushed Musk over $10 billion ahead to $194.9 billion.
The latest publication of Big Tech results has reshuffled Bloomberg’s rich list this year. Meta stock experienced a 20% increase on Friday following a strong earnings report, but then fell 3% on Monday. Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune increased by $37 billion this year, reaching $165 billion as of Monday’s close, placing him fourth on the rich list.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett rose to seventh position on Friday, surpassing Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison and the “Google Guys” Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He dropped back to eighth place on Monday.
Ellison’s net worth has been impacted by the loss in value of his Tesla interest, while a 6% post-earnings drop in Alphabet stock last week reduced Page and Brin’s holdings.
On the other side, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shares is up approximately 9% this year as the economy improves. In the first five weeks of this year, the investor’s wealth increased by an estimated $10 billion, whereas Ellison’s fortune increased by only $7 billion and Page and Brin gained roughly $3 billion each.
Musk’s net wealth has decreased from over $340 billion in late 2021 to around $200 billion now. However, Tesla stock has increased more than sixfold since the beginning of 2020, while Amazon stock has less than doubled.