Elon Musk Becomes $100 Billion Richer Than Bezos For First Time

Elon Musk took over Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world by a whopping $100 billion. 

According to Forbes’ latest rich list, the Tesla CEO hit a net worth of $282 billion, placing him in top spot - for the time being, anyway. 

Meanwhile, the former Amazon boss’ net worth is a cool $180.2 billion, which sat at $100 billion below Musk’s. As the rich list updates however, Musk's worth has dipped slightly to $274.3 billion (heartbreaking, I know).

The pair have been consistently darting between the two spots over the years thanks to their various business ventures.

Both entrepreneurs have ventured into space travel with their SpaceX and Blue Origin businesses, which belong to Musk and Bezos respectively. 

As reported by the outlet, no billionaire has benefitted more during the pandemic than Musk, who started off 2020 with a net worth of $26.6 billion.

This figure grew significantly as the stock price of his electric car company rose to unexpected new heights. 

The 50-year-old businessman also recently became the single-largest shareholder in Twitter after buying 9.2 percent of the company.

The billionaire took a $2.89 billion stake in the social media platform, giving him a share almost four times greater than its founder, Jack Dorsey.

Bezos, meanwhile, sold $8.8 billion worth of his Amazon stock last year while also giving some away, and according to Forbes he now owns just shy of 10 percent of the company. 

He’s certainly not struggling for cash right now, though, as he’s having a 417ft boat built for him at the not-so-modest price of £400 million.

The 58-year-old entrepreneur made headlines recently with the news he was paying a significant amount of money to have a historic bridge in Rotterdam dismantled so the megayacht can pass through. 

That being said, with Tesla’s shares skyrocketing, Musk could afford to buy the boat many times over. 

As for Musk’s investment in Twitter, many users on the app believe he forked out the incredible sum of money just to ban the account of the teenager who was tracking his private jet trips.

The teenager in question is 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, who made headlines after creating @ElonJet, which does what it says on the tin – it makes a post on Twitter every time the jet takes off and lands in a location.

Musk wasn't too happy about his jet's movements being broadcasted to the public, even though the information is freely available to anyone who looks it up.

In a bid to silence the jet gazer, the SpaceX founder offered Sweeney $5,000 to shut it down. 

Sweeney declined and demanded $50,000 instead, a deal Musk turned down and proceeded to block the teen on Twitter.