A lot happened this week. Rioters desecrated the United States capital. Joe Biden was officially certified by Congress as America's next President Trump was banned from Twitter. Elon Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world for the first time. Since this is CelebrityNetWorth, not Politico, we're obviously going to focus on that last event. Though to be clear, those other events were earth-shattering.
Monday: $170 Billion
Before the stock markets opened for trading on Monday, Elon Musk had a net worth of $170 billion. Jeff Bezos had a net worth of $190 billion. At that point we posted the following article:
Elon Musk Is Just $20 Billion Away From Being The Richest Person On The Planet
After we posted the above article to Facebook, some commenters were upset that we said Elon "was a mere $20 billion away". The complaint being that we were downplaying $20 billion and exaggerating how easy it would be for someone to grow their net worth by $20 billion in a short period of time.
Actually, the commenters weren't totally wrong. When we published that article, I personally thought it would take weeks… maybe months for Elon to close the gap and potentially take over as the richest person on the planet. As the publisher of CNW, I was extremely excited by the prospect of writing dozens of articles chronicling the inch-by-inch back and forth of the Bezos/Musk wealth brawl.
Well….
Elon cut that $20 billion gap to $11 billion on Monday alone. Here's how the rest of the week unfolded:
Tuesday: $175 Billion
Elon ends Tuesday with a net worth of $175 billion. Jeff ends Tuesday worth $186 billion. So in one fell swoop, $9 billion of the $20 billion gap was hacked away.
By our estimate, as long as Amazon shares hovered in the $3,200 per share range, Elon needed Tesla to trade above $795 for him to take over as richest person in the world.
At Wednesday's lowest point, Tesla traded at $750. At its high, Tesla traded at $770. It ended the day back down at $755.
Wednesday: $181 billion
Elon ended Wednesday at $181 billion. Jeff ended the day at $184 billion.
When the markets opened Thursday, Tesla was up and Amazon was down just enough to make Elon the richest person in the world for the first time… temporarily. Amazon rose back up, but then by mid-day Tesla sky-rocketed. Elon comfortably topped Jeff Bezos. Amazon shares ended the day at $3,162. Tesla closed Thursday at $816. At those levels, Elon's net worth was $196 billion and Jeff's net worth was $185 billion.
Thursday: $196 Billion – Richest Person in the World
The Tesla rocket ship wasn't done.
After opening the week at $735 per share, Tesla ended the trading day Friday at $880. That's a 20% gain. Amazon started the week at $3,186 and ended at $3,182. Essentially unchanged.
At $880 per share, we estimate Elon Musk's net worth is $210 billion.
Friday: Elon Musk's net worth is $210 Billion
In case you haven't done the math yet, that's a $40 billion increase in five days. Double the amount people thought we were exaggerating.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
What's Next? $256 billion.
There is a caveat in Elon's achievement of being the richest person in the world over Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos currently has a net worth of $186 billion. But that's AFTER he lost tens of millions of Amazon shares in his divorce settlement with ex-wife MacKenzie.
Had Jeff never divorced, today he would be worth $256 billion. At today's levels Elon is just a mere $46 billion away from $256 billion. He gained $40 billion over the last five days. Should be a cinch!
So that's what I want to see. I want to see Elon's net worth top $256 billion plus a dollar.
