Musk Back As World's Richest Person: Bloomberg

Elon Musk has regained his spot as the world's richest person, after briefly losing the title to France's Bernard Arnault, Amanda Albright reported for Bloomberg News.

Photo Insert: Musk was displaced atop Bloomberg's wealth index for more than two months after a steep slide in Tesla.

Musk's wealth has been buoyed by a nearly 70% surge in Tesla Inc.'s stock price this year. It's up about 100% from its intraday low on Jan. 6 as investors pile back into bets on riskier growth stocks amid signs of economic strength and a slower pace of Federal Reserve interest-rate increases.

The company has also benefited from more demand for its electric vehicles after cutting prices on several models.

Tesla shares rose 5.5% to $207.63 at 4 p.m. in New York, boosting Musk's net worth to $187.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That exceeds the $185.3 billion personal fortune of Arnault, the 73-year-old French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH.

Musk, 51, entered 2023 with a net worth of $137 billion, becoming the first person ever to lose $200 billion from their fortune and raising the prospect that he might struggle to reclaim his title as the world's richest individual.

He was displaced atop Bloomberg's wealth index for more than two months after a steep slide in Tesla, where he's chief executive officer. Donations Musk made late last year didn't make much of a dent in his net worth.

He gave 11.6 million Tesla shares to unnamed charitable causes between August and December, according to a disclosure in February. The stock was worth about $1.9 billion, based on closing prices on the days it was donated. It turned out he donated the money to himself via his own foundation.

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