On March 4th, the world's richest person changed once again, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos overtaking Tesla CEO Elon Musk to reclaim the top spot on the world's richest people list.
Bezos's return to the title of the world's richest person is attributed to the recent plummet in Tesla's stock price. On the closing day of March 4th, Tesla's stock price plummeted by 7%, and since the beginning of this year, the company's stock price has fallen by more than 24%. Musk's personal wealth has also shrunk significantly.
The latest wealth list data shows that Bezos currently has a net worth of $200 billion, with Musk following closely behind at $198 billion. Over the past year, Musk has lost more than $31 billion in wealth, while Bezos's wealth has increased by $23 billion.
Last month, Bezos made a large-scale reduction in his shares of Amazon, selling 50 million shares in just 9 trading days, cashing out nearly $8.5 billion, which attracted market attention.
The top three positions on the global rich list are currently concentrated among Bezos, Musk, and Bernard Arnault, CEO of the French luxury goods giant LVMH. In May last year, Musk overtook Arnault to become the world's richest person.
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According to the latest annual report from Oxfam, since 2020, the net worth of the world's five richest people has soared by 114%, reaching $869 billion.
Musk's recent wealth shrinkage is closely related to the decline in Tesla's stock price. Data from the China Passenger Car Association on March 4th shows that the shipment volume of Tesla's China factory hit a 14-month low in February, with only about 60,000 electric vehicles delivered last month, the lowest level since December 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 19%. This news directly led to the sharp drop in Tesla's stock price on Monday.
The recent decline in Tesla's stock price is also related to the fierce electric vehicle price war. To stimulate the purchase of electric vehicles by Chinese consumers, Tesla launched a new round of incentives worth up to 34,600 yuan last week.
Musk himself has also been embroiled in lawsuits recently. A legal document from last week showed that he initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, and a few days later, he was sued by former Twitter executives.
In the latest lawsuit against Musk and his newly established X company, executives including former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Legal Chief Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett claimed that they were owed $128 million in unpaid severance pay.The executives claim that after acquiring Twitter, Musk "personally" retaliated against them. They also assert that Musk "uses his wealth and power to treat roughly anyone who disagrees with him." Musk has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit.
Previously, Company X has faced two proposed class-action lawsuits, which allege that the company owes at least $500 million in severance pay to regular employees who were laid off after Musk's acquisition. Company X has also been sued for failing to pay fees to its former public relations firm, landlord, suppliers, and consultants.
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