Elon Musk has reclaimed the title of the richest person in the world, according to a Bloomberg report Tuesday.
In December 2022, the Tesla and Space X chief executive was dislodged from the richest spot by Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH (LVMHF).
Now, Musk is back to the top spot from staying at No. 2 on the list for more than two months. As of Monday, Bloomberg reported that a rally in Tesla stock over the last eight weeks has lifted Musk back to the top of its real-time Billionaires Index.
As of February 27, Musk’s net worth at the close of markets was about $187.1 billion, Bloomberg reported, just topping the Arnault family's $185.3 billion fortune.
Tesla saw its share price taking a beating in 2022 on the back of the Twitter buyout drama and a string of interest rate increases driven by major central banks across the world.
The chorus of rate hikes, aimed in part to curb inflation triggered by Ukraine war-driven oil supply shocks, prompted big fund managers to dump stocks.
But from January 2023, Tesla shares jumped 68.56 per cent, clawing back most of its value lost in the previous year's stocks rout, when Nasdaq fell by 33.1 per cent.
The serial technopreneur is also the CEO of Neuralink, The Boring Company, and was the co-founder of OpenAI and PayPal. Musk left OpenAI, citing conflict of interest, and is also now recruiting staff for a lab that aims to create an alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Musk also controls microblogging site Twitter after paying $44 billion in a controvesial take-private move. He heads Starlink, currently the world’s biggest communications constellation, with more than 3,500 satellites in space.
Tesla produced over 1.3 million electric vehicles in 2022 and is one of more famous brands Musk deftly guided from the throes of bankruptcy. Space X, which also stared bankruptcy in the face, has completely disrupted space travel by significantly reducing access through reusable rockets.
