Elon Musk now worth 3 times more than Warren Buffett
Musk, 50, is also worth more than South Africa's whole gross domestic product (GDP), which was $301.9 billion last year, according to World Bank figures.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has become the world's first billionaire to reach $300 billion in fortune, making him three times as wealthy as Warren Buffet.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported, the tech mogul's net worth has increased by another $24 billion to $335 billion. Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is worth $104 billion.
Musk, 50, is also worth more than South Africa's whole gross domestic product (GDP), which was $301.9 billion last year, according to World Bank figures.
His significant uptick in fortune was fueled by an 8.5% increase in Tesla's stock, according to Bloomberg, which increased his net worth to $165 billion in 2021. At the start of the year, the multibillionaire held around 22.4% of the company.
Following word that Hertz had bought 100,000 Teslas, a 13% jump in Tesla's shares earned Musk an extra $36 billion – the greatest single-day gain Bloomberg has ever recorded.
Musk now has a solid $142 billion lead over the world's second richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is worth $193 billion according to Bloomberg's index.
Despite declines in March and May, Tesla's stock has risen 65.6% since the beginning of the year.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted he would sell his shares in the electric automaker and spend $6 billion to alleviate world hunger, as long as the World Food Programme could prove that the money would solve the global hunger crisis.