SAN FRANCISCO – Mr Elon Musk is closing in on recapturing his title as the world’s richest person since falling behind Mr Bernard Arnault in December, thanks to Tesla’s 70 per cent rise this year. 

It may take a bit longer for Mr Musk to overtake the French luxury-goods titan, though, after disclosing this week he gave 11.6 million Tesla shares to unnamed charitable causes between August and December. The stock was worth about US$2.4 billion (S$3.2 billion), based on average prices on the days Mr Musk donated the securities.

The disclosure comes as Mr Musk, 51, has narrowed the gap with Mr Arnault to less than US$10 billion amid signs of growing demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles. 

He now has a fortune of about US$184 billion after his latest donation, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That is down from a peak of more than US$300 billion in late 2021 before he decided to buy Twitter in a leveraged buyout near the peak of the tech market, but up more almost US$50 billion this year.

Mr Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer and biggest individual shareholder, previously donated shares in the company in 2021 worth about US$6 billion, making it at the time one of the largest philanthropic donations in history. 

The recipient of the donation was later revealed as the Musk Foundation, which has recently provided funds to education and carbon-removal projects as well as non-profits in the area around Brownsville, Texas, close to his SpaceX spaceport.

Much of Mr Musk’s wealth is still tied up in Tesla stock, though SpaceX has made up a bigger share in recent years. He sold more than US$20 billion of Tesla stock last year as he tried to shore up his buyout of Twitter. BLOOMBERG