Elon Musk regains his spot as world’s richest person with net worth of $252 billion

New York – Billionaire Elon Musk has regained his spot as the world’s richest person, after briefly

losing the title to French tycoon Bernard Arnault.

Mr Musk’s wealth has been buoyed by a nearly 70 per cent surge in Tesla’s stock price this year. It is up about 100 per cent from its intraday low on Jan 6 as investors pile back into bets on riskier growth stocks amid signs of economic strength and a slower pace of Federal Reserve interest rate increases. The company has also benefited from more demand for its electric vehicles after cutting prices on several models.

Tesla shares rose 5.5 per cent to US$207.63 at 4pm in New York on Monday, boosting Mr Musk’s net worth to US$187.1 billion (S$252 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This exceeds the US$185.3 billion personal fortune of Mr Arnault, the 73-year-old tycoon behind luxury goods powerhouse LVMH.

Mr Musk, 51, entered 2023 with a net worth of US$137 billion, becoming the first person to lose US$200 billion from his fortune and raising the prospect that he might struggle to reclaim his title as the world’s richest individual. He was displaced atop Bloomberg’s wealth index for more than two months after a steep slide in Tesla, where he is chief executive officer.

Donations that Mr Musk made late last year did not make much of a dent in his net worth. He gave

11.6 million Tesla shares to unnamed charitable causes

between August and December, according to a disclosure in February. The stock was worth about US$1.9 billion, based on closing prices on the days it was donated.

Tesla investors had been concerned that he was devoting too much of his attention to Twitter, which he acquired in October, at the same time that his electric vehicle (EV) maker was facing heightened competition across the industry. Mr Musk said in December he planned to resign from his post at the social media platform once he found someone “foolish” enough to take the job.

He said this month that he might need until the end of the year to stabilise Twitter’s finances before handing off to a new CEO.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan said in a February report that Tesla’s price cuts had spurred demand for its vehicles, and that the company is the “poster child” of EVs.

“We believe there is strong demand for Tesla product even in the face of more EV competition,” Mr Narayan wrote.

Tesla is hosting its 2023 investor day on Wednesday, with the company’s leaders set to discuss long-term expansion plans.

Tesla’s gains have far outpaced the rally in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index, which is up about 10 per cent in 2023. This year has seen occasional bursts of speculative trading mania among retail traders – and Tesla is a favourite among that group. BLOOMBERG