Elon musk surpasses Jeff bezos to become the world's richest person

 Musk has just become the richest

person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185billion (£136billion).

The Tesla and SpaceX boss shot past

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the world’s rich list after shares in his companies rose.

In the past year South African born Musk’s wealth has risen by $160billion (£118billion) as demand for Tesla’s electric cars has soared.

Bezos had been the richest person on the planet since 2017 and is currently worth around $184billion (£136billion).

Just 18 months ago Tesla’s value suffered heavy losses following legal and regulatory concerns and worries over Musk’s leadership.

In August 2018 the CEO famously tweeted that he had ‘funding secured’ to make Tesla private at ‘$420 a share’, heralding a year of litigation, government inquiries, layoffs and operational problems.

But Tesla’s share price has increased

more than nine-fold over the past year, making a substantial comeback, while Amazon’s have remained more steady.

At the start of 2020 Musk was worth

around $27billion (£20billion) and was only just in the top 50 richest people.