Thanks to a blowout earnings report and a big car order by Hertz, Tesla’s market cap surpassed $1 trillion on Monday—and CEO Elon Musk has emerged as the richest person in the history of the world.

Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth to be $271.3 billion as of the market’s close on Monday—up some $41.7 billion from Friday’s close. For that, he can thank a nearly 13% jump in Tesla stock plus more than 16 million new stock options, worth $16.1 billion, awarded following Tesla’s latest earnings report.

Musk is in uncharted territory, headed toward $300 billion. For comparison, Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest person to ever appear on The Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people earlier this month, topping the list with an estimated $201 billion fortune. His net worth climbed as high as $212 billion when Amazon’s stock peaked in July—a full $59.3 billion less than Musk is worth now. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates briefly surpassed $100 billion in April 1999, during the dot-com bubble’s apex. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just over $165 billion today. When Forbes first began tracking billionaire wealth, in 1982, the richest person in America was shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig, worth $2 billion, or about $5.5 billion in today’s dollars.

Musk’s 23% stake in Tesla (discounted for loan obligations) constitutes the bulk of his fortune, but he also holds a minority stake in the privately held rocket company he founded in 2002, SpaceX. The business was most recently valued by investors at $74 billion, following a February funding round.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/e....lizahaverstock/2021/

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