Elon Musk Gains $25 Billion in Just One Day to Set a New Milestone

Elon Musk just hit a new milestone: He made a record $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,81,610 crore) in one day.

Tesla’s 20 percent jump on Tuesday – its biggest in more than a year – pushed the billionaire founder’s fortune to $174 billion (roughly Rs. 12,64,250 crore), closing the gap with Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The top 10 largest wealth gainers, all from the tech industry, added $54 billion (roughly Rs. 3,92,350 crore) combined.

After three weeks of declines that sent the Nasdaq 100 Index down 11 percent from a peak, US tech shares staged a stellar rally on Tuesday that lifted almost all of the gauge’s members. The surge in Bezos’s Amazon helped him gain $6 billion (roughly Rs. 43,600 crore), taking his net worth to $180 billion (roughly Rs. 13,07,750 crore), while Colin Huang of Chinese online shopping platform Pinduoduo Inc. added almost as much.

$25 Billion in one day
Musk and Bezos have been battling for the top spot on the Bloomberg wealth index since the Tesla founder took over in January, the month his fortune hit $210 billion (roughly Rs. 15,25,370 crore). Since then, Bezos regained the title of world’s richest as shares of the electric-car maker sank as much as 36 percent. Now the two tycoons are less than $6 billion (roughly Rs. 43,580 crore) apart.

On Tuesday, Tesla also benefited from an upgrade by New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu, who recommended buying the stock, and a rally in Bitcoin.

The gains contrast with the remarkable fall of China’s bottled-water king Zhong Shanshan, who in December unseated India’s Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person and surpassed Warren Buffett in January, becoming the sixth-wealthiest in the world. Zhong is now the biggest loser of the year and has dropped off the list of the top 15 on the Bloomberg ranking. Tencent’s Pony Ma is back to being China’s richest, with a fortune of almost $64 billion (roughly Rs. 4,64,910 crore).

© 2021 Bloomberg LP

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