With $8 billion left, Jeff Bezos may overtake Elon Musk and reclaim the title of wealthiest person in the world

With $8 billion left, Jeff Bezos may overtake Elon Musk and reclaim the title of wealthiest person in the world

With $8 billion left, Jeff Bezos may overtake Elon Musk and reclaim the title of wealthiest person in the world

If Jeff Bezos beats Elon Musk, he'll likely reclaim his title as the wealthiest person in the world.

The creator of Amazon is just $8 billion less wealthy than the CEO of Tesla, who is estimated to be worth $205 billion by Bloomberg.

Thanks to a spike in Amazon stock this year and a decline in Tesla, Jeff Bezos is just $8 billion away from surpassing Elon Musk as the wealthiest person in the world.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index indicates that the founder and executive chairman of Amazon has seen a $20 billion rise in his projected net worth this year. This is mostly due to Amazon's 13% stock price increase this year, which has propelled them to the second spot on the wealthy list with a $197 billion net worth.

By comparison, Musk's net worth has decreased by $24 billion to $205 billion, mostly as a result of a 24% decrease in Tesla shares.

The value of around $304 million in stock options from Musk's 2018 pay plan, which was recently revoked by a Delaware court, is still included in Bloomberg's assessment.

As a consequence, Bezos's net worth is now just 4% that of Elon Musk, and if Amazon keeps rising or Tesla keeps falling, he may soon pass Musk.

At the end of December, Bezos had 988 million shares, or almost 10% of Amazon's total shares; at Friday's closing, his position was worth $169 billion.

In the meanwhile, Musk is estimated to have 411 million Tesla shares, or around 13% of the company, for a total estimated value of $76 billion. The remainder of his fortune is derived from his holdings in SpaceX, Twitter, and other companies.

Recall that Bezos said in his company's annual report last week that he intends to sell 50 million Amazon shares for $8.6 billion by the end of January of the following year. In November, they approved the trade arrangement.

From 2017 until January 2021, Bezos was the greatest performer on the Bloomberg index. However, a spike in Tesla shares allowed Musk to pass him by over $10 billion, reaching $194.9 billion.

Bloomberg's wealthy list has been rearranged this year in part due to Big Tech's recent earnings reports. Following the earnings beat, Meta stock surged 20% on Friday, increasing creator Mark Zuckerberg's fortune to $170 billion (up $28 billion) and reaching a historic $42 billion this year.

Buffett surpasses the 'Googlers'

In the meanwhile, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and "Google Guys" Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been surpassed by Warren Buffett, who now stands at number seven.

A reduction in the value of his Tesla investment has hurt Ellison's net worth, while Page and Brin's holdings have lost value due to last week's 6% post-earnings dip in Alphabet shares.

However, as the economic outlook improves, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway shares has increased by about 9% this year. Over the first five weeks of this year, the investor's wealth climbed by an estimated $10 billion, whereas Ellison's increased by just approximately $7 billion and Page and Brin by roughly $2 billion each.

Musk's net wealth dropped from over $340 billion at the end of 2021 to approximately $200 billion today, which is undoubtedly unexpected. Nonetheless, since the start of 2020, Tesla's stock has increased more than sixfold, while Amazon's shares have increased by less than twice.