THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST
T
he U.S. stock market has almost made a full recovery from its 4.7% decline in September, and the world’s richest person is reaping more of the rewards than anybody.
Elon Musk’s fortune swelled to a whopping $214.8 billion this week, increasing by $12.7 billion as Tesla stock posted steady gains every day and rose 7.3% from Monday to Friday to cross $800 per share for the first time since February. Tesla outperformed the S&P 500’s 1.8% increase this week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also gained 1.6%, fueled by a strong finish to the week on Thursday and Friday.
Tesla stock has surged nearly 50% since May 19 as the electric carmaker continues to deliver vehicles in record numbers. It said in early October that it delivered 241,300 cars in the second quarter, and this week it revealed it sold 56,000 cars in China in September from its Shanghai production facility, 12,000 more than it did in August. Jefferies raised its price target on Tesla shares to $950 leading up to its third quarter earnings report next Wednesday. Relative to other carmakers, Tesla’s car sales are quite small; in the U.S. alone, Ford sold 4.2 million cars last year and Toyota sold 9.5 million; the combined market value of those two companies is dwarfed by Tesla’s $844 billion market capitalization.
The boom times made Musk richer than Jeff Bezos in late September and pushed his net worth past $200 billion for the first time. He’s having fun with the competition. After telling Forbes he would send Bezos a silver medal upon his ascent to the top spot, he followed through on that promise on Monday by replying to one of Bezos’ tweets with a silver medal emoji.
Although Musk widened the gap this week, Bezos still got $5.6 billion richer on Friday with Amazon stock rising 3.3%. Since stepping down as CEO of Amazon in July, Bezos has spent more time in the public eye promoting his commercial spaceflight company Blue Origin, and he was on site to celebrate this week when 90-year-old actor William Shatner became the oldest person ever to fly into space on its New Shepard spacecraft.
The only person whose week was almost as prosperous as Musk’s was French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault. He gained $10.5 billion after his LVMH conglomerate reported third-quarter sales of $18 billion (15.5 billion euros) , boosting its stock by 6.1% for the week. Arnault remains the third-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $185.4 billion. The strong week for luxury goods and cosmetics also made Arnault’s French compatriots François Pinault (of Kering) and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (of L'Oréal) billions of dollars richer.
Here are the biggest billionaire gainers this week. The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, October 8 to Friday, October 15.
HERE ARE THE BIGGEST BILLIONAIRE GAINERS THIS WEEK.
The net worth change is from close of markets Friday, October 8 to Friday, October 15.
1 | ELON MUSK
NET WORTH | $214.8 BILLION, UP $12.7 BILLION
COUNTRY | UNITED STATES
SOURCE OF WEALTH | TESLA
2 | BERNARD ARNAULT
NET WORTH | $185.4 BILLION, UP $10.6 BILLION
COUNTRY | FRANCE
SOURCE OF WEALTH | LVMH
3 | JEFF BEZOS
NET WORTH | $197.8 BILLION, UP $6.1 BILLION
COUNTRY | UNITED STATES
SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON
4 | WEI JIANJUN
NET WORTH | $31 BILLION, UP $4.6 BILLION
COUNTRY | CHINA
SOURCE OF WEALTH | AUTOMOBILES / GREAT WALL MOTOR
5 | RADHAKISHAN DAMANI
NET WORTH | $25.6 BILLION, UP $4.2 BILLION
COUNTRY | INDIA
SOURCE OF WEALTH | RETAIL, INVESTMENTS / AVENUE SUPERMART
6 | ROBIN ZENG
NET WORTH | $50.7 BILLION, UP $3.2 BILLION
COUNTRY | HONG KONG
SOURCE OF WEALTH | BATTERIES / CATL
7 | GAUTAM ADANI
NET WORTH | $75.3 BILLION, UP $3 BILLION
COUNTRY | INDIA
SOURCE OF WEALTH | COMMODITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE
8 | FRANÇOIS PINAULT
NET WORTH | $50 BILLION, UP $2.8 BILLION
COUNTRY | FRANCE
SOURCE OF WEALTH | LUXURY GOODS / KERING
9 | FRANÇOISE BETTENCOURT MEYERS
NET WORTH | $84.7 BILLION, UP $2.7 BILLION
COUNTRY | FRANCE
SOURCE OF WEALTH | L’ORÉAL
10 | WANG CHUANFU
NET WORTH | $23.5 BILLION, UP $2.5 BILLION
COUNTRY | CHINA
SOURCE OF WEALTH | BATTERIES, AUTOMOBILES / BYD
