Jeff Bezos reclaims world’s richest man title as Elon Musk loses over $15 billion

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has once again regained the title of world’s richest person after a slide of 8.6% in Tesla shares on Monday slashed its founder and CEO Elon Musk’s net worth by about $15.2 billion. 

The slide, which is the biggest for Tesla since September, was caused partly because of Musk’s comments on Bitcoin and its rival Ether, saying the cryptocurrencies’s prices “do seem high”, according to a Bloomberg report.  

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Musk’s comments came two weeks after Tesla announced it had added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet. After surging for more than 400% in the past year, the cryptocurrency has slumped for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, slipping below $50,000 at one point as skepticism prevailed over the durability of its rally. 

Musk also stated that the Tesla Model Y SUV will still be available “off the menu” after reports from electric vehicle news site Electrek that the model had been removed from its online configurator. 

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Musk dropped to second in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s richest individuals, with a net worth of $183.4 billion. His peak net worth, in January, was $210 billion.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos regained the top spot despite his net worth falling by $3.7 to $186.3 on Monday. The two have been swapping places due to fluctuations in the value of Tesla. 

The electric car maker’s stock rallied 25% at the start of 2021 before nearly wiping all of this year’s gains. Musk had briefly dethroned Bezos after his space rocket company SpaceX surged by $850 million earlier this month, taking its total valuation to $74 billion, 60% higher than in August, 2020. 

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Bezos held the title of the world’s richest person for three consecutive years before January, when Tesla shares rose 794%. 

Monday’s market selloff chalked off substantial portions from some of the world’s wealthiest people. Asia’s richest person Zhong Shanshan was the worst affected o the Bloomberg Index, losing $5.1 billion as his bottled-water firm slumped by 4.5%. 

Pinduoduo Inc’s Colin Huang, Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani and Tencent Holding’s Pony Ma all lost over $2.5 billion each.