Jeff Bezos has retained the title of the world’s richest person from Elon Musk after shares of Amazon jumped on Wednesday, January 13.
Amazon’s stock rose by nearly 1.5 percent on Wednesday, pushing Bezos’ net worth up by $2.4 billion. With the rise, his net worth now stands at USD 184.9 billion, making him the richest person in the world once again, according to Forbes’. Bezos is just USD 200 million wealthier than Elon Musk, who is worth $184.7 billion.
The Tesla chief briefly took the number one spot from Bezos on January 8 and again on January 12, Forbes calculates. Shares of Musk’s electric-automobile, Tesla, rose by 0.6 percent on January 13. This slightly increased the fortune of Musk by nearly USD1 billion.
While Musk and Bezos compete for the top spot, they are more than USD 30 billion richer than the world’s third-wealthiest person, French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault. Arnault is now worth USD 150.5 billion, Forbes estimates.
While Bezos was the world’s richest person for much of 2020, Musk closed the gap over the past year, with his fortune growing unprecedently. Musk’s net worth rose by some $160 billion since March 2020, when he was worth $24.6 billion. Musk’s fortune has grown in tandem with Tesla’s skyrocketing stock price, rising by more than 720 percent in 2020.
Meanwhile, Bezos-owned space company Blue Origin aims to carry the first passengers on its New Shepard space vehicle as early as April, CNBC reported on January 14.
Blue Origin completed the fourteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Thursday, January 14, marking one of the last remaining steps before the company flies its first crew to space, the report said.
Responding to a Reuters request for comment on the report, a company spokesperson stated it as a rumor and speculative – not confirmed.
The CNBC report said Blue Origin aims to launch the second test flight within six weeks, or by late February, and the first crewed flight six weeks after that, or by early April.
