Elon Musk leapfrogged Bill Gates to become the second-richest person of the world

New Delhi: After beating Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, beat Bill Gates to grab the world's second-richest person slot.

The 49-year-old entrepreneur's net worth soared from $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion. Musk has added $100.3 billion to his net worth this year. Most of his wealth is largely driven by Tesla, which has a market value approaching $500 billion.

About three-quarters of his net worth is comprised of Tesla shares, which are valued more than four times as much as his stake in Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.

Musk began the year by ranking 35th on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp has held the top spot for years before being bumped by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos in 2017.

Gate's net worth of $127.7 billion would have been much higher had he not donated to charity over the years. He is believed to have given more than $27 billion to his namesake foundation- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, since 2006, according to Bloomberg.

The year has been a lucrative one for the world's wealthiest people despite the pandemic pulling the brakes on businesses.

From Jeff Bezos to Mukesh Ambani and Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, everyone has added billions of dollars to their net worth since the beginning of the year 2020.

The members of the Bloomberg Index have collectively gained 23% or $1.3 trillion this year.

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