World's richest person: Tesla founder Elon Musk on track to beat Amazon's Jeff Bezos

Elon Musk (File image)

Elon Musk is on track to become the richest person in the world after a surge in Tesla shares increased his net worth.

The SpaceX and Tesla founder’s net worth was $184.5 billion on January 6. The boost means Musk now trails Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos by just $3billion in terms of net worth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks the net worth of the world's richest people on a daily basis, largely values a billionaire based on the value of the assets they own.

Bezos has held the title of world's wealthiest person since October 2017, and is currently worth $187 billion.

In November 2020, Musk overtook Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person with $128 billion.

In the last 12 months, Musk managed to increase his net worth by more than $150 billion, despite the economic downturn brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The rise of Musk is backed by an unprecedented rally in Tesla’s share price, which surged 743 percent in 2020 on the back of consistent profits and joined the S&P 500 Index.

Tesla produced and delivered half-a-million cars last year, according to the company.

Musk tweeted he was “proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone.”

“At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all,” said the South Africa-born engineer.

So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all. https://t.co/xCqTL5TGlE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 2, 2021

Musk as a CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX and Bezos as an owner of Blue Origin LLC are also rivals in the private space race.