Elon Musk loses world’s richest person title after 3 years

Elon Musk has lost his status as the richest person in the world.

The owner of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Twitter has seen his net worth fall by a whopping $17.6 billion in the latest update of Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Published on March 5 2024, the list gives a periodic update of who the richest people in the world are.

Musk had occupied the top spot since 2021, but has since seen his net worth take a tumble in the list's latest update.

In January, a judge ruled that he would have to hand back the largest payout in corporate history of $55 billion.

The order came after accusations that Musk had attempted to strong arm directors at Tesla.

So who's taken Musk's place at the top spot?

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Well, unsurprisingly, it's someone who has occupied it before - Amazon founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos.

The 60-year-old also saw a loss to his portfolio of some $500 million, but the drop in Musk's portfolio saw him overtake the SpaceX CEO.

Jeff Bezos is now worth $200 billion, while Musk is worth $198 billion.

Amazon's stock has also risen by around 89 percent since this time last year, with Bezos owning around nine percent of the shares.

Bezos has also recently sold off some $4 billion worth of shares and has stepped back from Amazon.

Instead, the multibillionaire is focussing his efforts on his Blue Origin space projects.

His movement back up to the top spot comes after a rally in shares in Big Tech following the boom in artificial intelligence development.

Bezos previously unseated Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 2017, before himself being supplanted by Musk in 2021, and now returning to the top spot.

But who are the ten people who occupy this super-rich list?

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Well after Bezos and Musk comes French billionaire Bernard Arnault at $197 billion.

Arnault is the founder and CEO of LVMH, a holding company which is the largest luxury goods business in the world including fashion, champagne, perfumes, and cosmetics.

Then we have Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg at $179 billion, following by Microsoft co founder Bill Gates at $150 billion.

Coming in at number six we have Microsoft alumnus Steve Ballmer with $143 billion. He is followed by investor Warren Buffett with $133 billion.

Next up is Larry Ellison of the tech corporation Oracle, with $129 billion. He is followed by Google co founder Larry Page who is valued at $122 billion.

Finally, at tenth there's another Google co founder Sergey Brin, who comes in at $116 billion.