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

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is close to snagging the title of the world’s richest person from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: 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