Elon Musk returns to the top, becomes richest person on the planet again

With his wealth rising over $50 billion so far in 2023, Elon Musk, Twitter chief and Tesla chief executive, on February 28 became the world's richest person again, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He surpassed French businessman Bernard Arnault who now stands second on the list with a total wealth of $185 billion. Musk's total wealth, on Tuesday, stood at $187 billion. 

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is in the third spot with $117 billion.

The rise in Musk's wealth can be attributed to the rally in Tesla stocks that has outpaced the rally in the Nasdaq 100 Index so far this year. The price of the shares has surged 92 per cent in 2023. Nasdaq 100 has jumped 11 per cent so far this year. Musk currently owns a 13 per cent stake in the electric vehicle (EV) company. 

Musk was at the top of the list for a large part of 2022. But after his acquisition of microblogging platform Twitter in October, the shares of Tesla fell. This led to a fall in his net worth. Arnault stayed at the top of the list from then until Monday. 

Arnault's net worth has risen by $23.3 billion so far this year. Bezos has gained $10.2 billion in the first two months of 2023. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the other two businessmen in the top five. 

With a net worth of $81.1 billion, Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian to feature in the top 10 of the list. He has lost $6.02 billion this year, but has managed to stay in the top ten.

On the other hand, Gautam Adani, who was placed third on the list less than 2 months ago now stands at the 32nd spot. His net worth was $37.7 billion. So far this year, he has lost $82.8 billion. This may largely be due to a report released by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research which called the Adani Group stocks "overpriced". 

Since then, almost all the shares in the group have suffered a sell-off in the Indian markets.