Elon Musk is having a greater 2020 than most individuals.

Tesla‘s CEO handed Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates final week to change into the world’s second-richest individual, in keeping with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk began the 12 months because the thirty fifth richest, and his web value has greater than quadrupled since then, thanks largely to Tesla’s hovering share worth.

Tesla’s market cap topped $500 billion for the primary time final week, rising Musk’s wealth to about $128 billion. About three-quarters of his web value is predicated on Tesla’s shares, which surged additional after latest information that the corporate would be part of the S&P 500 index in December.

Gates and Musk have had a number of public spats over electrical automobiles and COVID-19. Gates’ charitable basis has helped fund analysis to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, whereas Musk insisted within the spring that the illness was not a significant concern.

It is solely the second time since Bloomberg began rating billionaires eight years in the past that Gates did not maintain one of many high two spots. Musk nonetheless trails Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.