Jeff Bezos briefly overtakes Elon Musk as world’s richest person… Tesla stock slides

By Newsroom On Mar 6, 2024

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the richest person in the U.S. on Wednesday, though Musk reclaimed the title after just a few minutes, according to Forbes’ calculations, as Musk’s net worth takes a dramatic hit in the midst of Tesla’s stock market woes.

Bezos’s $195 billion net worth topped Musk’s $193 billion fortune shortly after the stock market opened early Wednesday, though Musk retook the mantle as the richest American soon thereafter as Tesla shares pared their daily losses from 4% to 2%.

Wednesday was the first time since Aug. 19, 2021 that Musk placed outside of the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings.

Musk started the year as No. 1 on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list before losing the top spot to France’s Bernard Arnault in late January after his $51 billion Tesla compensation package was voided by a Delaware judge.

Musk also lost the No. 1 spot in late 2022, around the same time Tesla shares plunged following news of production challenges and investor concern surrounding Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter—though the tech billionaire later reclaimed the title of world’s richest person on June 8, 2023.

Musk first entered the top three in 2021, when he had an estimated $151 billion in net worth and was ranked No. 2 behind Bezos on the year’s billionaires list.

Bezos replaced the Tesla chief executive atop Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index on Monday as well which was the first time since late 2021. It was the first time Musk had lost the top spot in nine months, when LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault briefly surpassed him.

According to Bloomberg’s index, Bezos’s total net worth as of Monday was $200 billion, topping Musk’s $198 billion and Arnault’s $197 billion. Musk’s fortune has declined by $31 billion year to date, according to Bloomberg, while Bezos’s has risen by $23.4 billion.

Bezos reclaimed the top spot despite selling about 50 million Amazon shares, worth roughly $8 billion, last month. He still holds about a 9% stake in the tech giant. Amazon shares AMZN, 0.31% are up about 17% year to date.

Tesla shares slid more than 7% on Monday after the EV maker introduced new price cuts and discounts in the U.S. and China. Much of Musk’s fortune is in Tesla stock TSLA, -2.54%, which has fallen about 24% year to date; in January, a Delaware judge voided Musk’s $56 billion compensation package.