Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has added $100 billion to his wealth in 2020 and has managed to overtake Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become world’s second-richest person.

Tesla Inc CEO’s net worth increased from $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion— above Bill Gates at $127.7 billion for the first time—trigged by yet another 7 per cent jump in Tesla’s stock price.

HOW DID MUSK BAGGED THE SECOND SPOT

At the beginning of the year, the 47-year-old was sitting on the 35th position of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. According to Bloomberg, he has added $100.3 billion to his net worth in 2020.

One of the important reasons behind this surge in net worth is the rise seen on the share prices of Elon’s electric car company. The Tesla stock prices gone up a whopping 500 per cent this year while claiming the title of the most valuable carmaker around the globe.

This is amazing considering Tesla’s production is not even close to what other carmakers around the world churn out. The company also recently got recruited in the S&P 500 (Stock market index), which enhanced the share prices and helped Elon Musk to climb in the ranking.

In September, Musk had derided Gates saying that he “has no clue” about electric trucks, responding to a follower on social media.

Meanwhile, Gates in a blog in August on the future of mobility mentioned that the world should use clean electricity to function as many vehicles as possible, though he said it “will probably never be a practical solution” for heavy vehicles and cargo ships.

As per Bloomberg, Bill Gates would likely place higher if he had not donated over $27 billion of his wealth to the Gates Foundation from 2006.

TOP FIVE RICHEST MEN IN THE WORLD

1. Jeff Bezos

2. Elon Musk

3. Bill Gates

4. Mark Zuckerberg

Bernard Arnault