Elon Musk Just $3B Away From Claiming Jeff Bezos's Spot As World's Richest

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk is close to snagging the title of the world’s richest person from Amazon.com Inc AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos, as per Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

What Happened: The automotive and space entrepreneur is just $3 billion short of beating Bezos to the top spot in the Bloomberg ranking of the super-rich.

While Musk’s wealth stood at $181.1 billion as of Wednesday, Bezos was worth $184 billion.

Tesla shares shot up nearly 3% on Wednesday and another 1% in the after-hours trading.

CNBC wealth reporter Robert Frank noted that if Tesla's shares surged more than 1.6% in the next trading session, Musk could be the world's richest person on Wednesday.

Why It Matters: The Palo Alto-based automaker was added to the S&P 500 index last month. When the move was announced in November, Musk's wealth was reportedly at $117 billion, having gained $90 billion till the point.

The entrepreneur has — since the announcement of Tesla’s addition — added another $13 billion to his kitty. 

Musk owns 21% of Tesla’s stock and is likely to add more shares to his name thanks to a 2018 compensation plan that rewards stock performance and financials in 12 tranches of stock options.

In October, Musk unlocked a tranche that gave him nearly 1% of Tesla’s outstanding and translated into 8.44 million options to buy Tesla shares for nearly $70 each.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed nearly 2.8% higher at $755.98 on Wednesday and gained 1.01% in the after-hours session. On the same day, Amazon shares closed nearly 2.5% lower at $3,138.38 and gained 0.47% in the after-hours session.

Photo courtesy of Forbes via Wikimedia