That’s according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which on Monday estimated the tech mogul’s fortune at $335 billion after a $24 billion single-day gain. In comparison, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett was worth an estimated $104 billion.
Musk’s wealth on the index is higher than the gross domestic product of his home country, South Africa, which totaled $301.9 billion last year, per data from the World Bank.
As tracked by Bloomberg, Musk’s net worth has soared by $165 billion this year. His gains Monday were driven by an 8.5% rise in Tesla’s share price, Bloomberg first reported. The multibillionaire owned about 22.4% of the company at the start of the year.
Last week, a 13% leap in Tesla’s stock price netted Musk $36 billion – the largest single-day surge Bloomberg had ever recorded – after news emerged that the car-rental firm Hertz ordered 100,000 Teslas.
Musk, 50, now sits at a comfortable $142 billion above the world’s second-richest man – Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, whose net worth Bloomberg puts at $193 billion.
Tesla’s stock is up 65.6% this year, despite dips in March and May.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted that he was open to selling shares in the electric-car maker worth $6 billion to alleviate world hunger based on a plea from the director of the UN’s World Food Programme.
Matthew Loh, Business Insider
