Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the richest person in the U.S. on Wednesday, though Musk reclaimed the title after just a few minutes, according to Forbes’ calculations, as Musk’s net worth takes a dramatic hit in the midst of Tesla’s stock market woes.
Jeff Bezos enjoyed a brief moment as the richest American Wednesday.
Bezos’s $195 billion net worth topped Musk’s $193 billion fortune shortly after the stock market opened early Wednesday, though Musk retook the mantle as the richest American soon thereafter as Tesla shares pared their daily losses from 4% to 2%.
Wednesday was the first time since Aug. 19, 2021 that Musk placed outside of the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings.
Musk started the year as No. 1 on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list before losing the top spot to France’s Bernard Arnault in late January after his $51 billion Tesla compensation package was voided by a Delaware judge.
Musk also lost the No. 1 spot in late 2022, around the same time Tesla shares plunged following news of production challenges and investor concern surrounding Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter—though the tech billionaire later reclaimed the title of world’s richest person on June 8, 2023.
Musk first entered the top three in 2021, when he had an estimated $151 billion in net worth and was ranked No. 2 behind Bezos on the year’s billionaires list.
Musk told Forbes in 2021 he planned to send a silver medal to Bezos when he overtook the Amazon founder as the world’s richest man, writing, “I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Top 10 Richest People In The World (March 2024) (Forbes)
The Real-Time Billionaires List (Forbes)