TOPLINE
Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos, who has an estimated net worth of $199.6 billion, is once again the second-wealthiest person in the world as of Thursday, overtaking Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $197.4 billion, and marking the second switch of the week for the battling billionaires.
KEY FACTS
Bezos overtook Musk Thursday after losing his position as wealthiest person in the U.S. to him on Monday, following a surge in Tesla stock that vaulted Musk above Bezos and made him about $25 billion richer than he was just six days prior.
Bezos’ estimated net worth was up about $2.5 billion on Thursday at noon EDT, while Musk’s fortune had fallen about $276 million, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List.
The wealthiest person in the world is still LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, who was worth an estimated $206.9 billion as of Thursday morning.
BIG NUMBER
1.84%. That’s how much Amazon’s stock was up at noon EDT on Thursday. Tesla’s share price, in comparison, was up about 0.08%.
KEY BACKGROUND
The two billionaires have been going back-and-forth for the position of second wealthiest person in the world for months—they flip-flopped at least 13 times in March. But, before March, Musk had steadily held the first or second spots on the list: March 6 was the first time since Aug. 19, 2021 that he placed outside of the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings. Bezos had a resurgence of wealth earlier this year and Musk’s wealth has fluctuated as Tesla—which just announced hundreds more cuts among its staff this week—has struggled, leading to the ongoing back-and-forth.