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Elon Musk is now the second-richest person in the world, beating out Bill Gates

Yep, this guy.

Elon musk smoking weed
Image: Joe Rogan Experience / YouTube

Earlier this month, Elon Musk surpassed Mark Zuckerberg and became the third richest person in the world. Now, Elon also surpassed Bill Gates to become the second richest person in the world. Currently, only Jeff Bezos only sits ahead of Tesla’s CEO as anyone with a higher net worth.

According to Bloomberg, at the start of 2020, Elon Musk was ranked 35th among the world’s wealthiest people. Much of the Elon Musk’s meteoric ascend is due to his shares in Tesla. At the beginning of 2020, the car company had a $100 billion market value, whereas today, its value is $500 billion. Consequently, based on Tesla’s stock value, which makes two-thirds of Elon Musk’s fortune, the celebrity CEO’s net worth is around $182 billion.

Musk’s other notable ventures, such as SpaceX and Solar City, also did quite well in 2020. SpaceX earlier this year made the first crewed flight to space, whereas just a week ago, it sent four of its astronauts to the International Space Station.

According to Bloomberg analysts, Bill Gates would still be wealthier than Elon Musk if he had not shared so much of his wealth with charities. For many years, Bill Gates was the wealthiest person globally and both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk surpassed him this year. While Bezos and Musk were focused on growing their respective companies, Bill Gates, the retired founder of Microsoft, gave away over $27 billion of his wealth to charities. Much of Bill Gates’s charity work goes through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates disagree on many things, from electric vehicles to the coronavirus, and many things in between. It started as a few remarks about the state of artificial intelligence and the danger of it, then turned into a high-profile feud. At one point, Elon Musk called Bill Gates a “knucklehead” for criticizing his coronavirus efforts. On the other side, Bill Gates said that Musk’s coronavirus comments were “outrageous.”

With Elon Musk surpassing Bill Gates as the second richest person, their rivalry seems to be reaching another level.

What do you think? Surprised that Elon Musk is now the second-richest person in the world? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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