Elon Musk becomes world’s second richest person

Tesla is already the most valuable car firm in the world, despite producing a fraction of the vehicles of rivals such as Toyota, VW and General Motors.

On Tuesday, in a speech in Germany, Mr Musk said it could “make sense” for Tesla to expand in Europe by entering the mass-market segment with a small car.

“In the US, the cars tend to be bigger for personal taste reasons,” he said. “In Europe, (they) tend to be smaller.”

And after years of losses, Tesla has seen five consecutive quarters of profit as sales of its cars perform well despite the pandemic.

The California-based firm will be the biggest new entrant on the S&P 500, with a market value of more than $500bn.

It means investment funds tracking the index will automatically hold its stock and benefit from gains in its share price – news that has excited investors.

Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, was the world’s richest person for years before Mr Bezos knocked him off the top spot in 2017.

Mr Gates’s fortune is worth $127.7bn but would be higher had he not donated large sums to charity over the decades.

Jeff Bezos’s net worth is estimated at £182bn by Bloomberg. He too has seen his personal fortune rise this year as demand for Amazon’s services climbed in the pandemic.

Mr Musk, who regularly courts controversy, has had an eventful past few weeks.

Last weekend he tweeted that he “most likely” had a moderate case of Covid-19 and has had symptoms of “a minor cold.”

It came the day before four astronauts were launched to the International Space Station in a rocket built by Mr Musk’s SpaceX. – bbc.com