Jeff Bezos overtakes Elon Musk to become the richest person on earth

The Amazon founder’s worth is now $200bn, compared to Mr Musk’s $198bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

Jeff Bezos has overtaken Elon Musk to reclaim his spot as the richest person on Earth.

The Amazon founder’s worth is now $200bn, compared to Mr Musk’s $198bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Musk took the title of world’s richest person in May 2023, edging out LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, who runs one of the world’s biggest conglomerates and includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Celine.

Mr Bezos returns to the top for the first time since the autumn of 2021. He currently owns about nine per cent of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, according to a February 2024 Form 4 filing, as well as space exploration company Blue Origin.

Despite no longer running Amazon, he has benefited from the e-commerce giant’s rising stock price.

Mr Musk (left) is worth $198 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Mr Bezos is worth $200 billion (Getty Images for TIME and Getty Images)

Mr Bezos said in April 2017 that he funds Blue Origin through the sale of "about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock." That amount is deducted from the after-tax proceeds of his known share sales from 2014 and categorized as funding for Blue Origin.

In 2021 the amount was increased to $2bn as the company performed its first human-crewed flights and Mr Bezos’s share sales accelerated.

Since 2002, he’s sold about $38.5bn worth of Amazon shares, based on data analysis by Bloomberg.

Mr Bezos also paid $250m for The Washington Post in August 2013 and spent around $500m on the superyacht, Koru, which was launched in 2023.

By contrast, Mr Musk, who heads up Tesla, SpaceX, and now also social media platform X, has seen his riches fall by more than $30bn as his electric vehicle company’s share price has dropped 25 per cent in recent months.

In addition, a court in January approved the annulment of his enormous Tesla compensation agreement, worth $55.8 bn and originally reached in 2018.

According to Bloomberg, Mr Arnault remains in third place in the rankings of the world’s richest people, with a net worth of $197bn.