
After more than nine months, Tesla owner Elon Musk has again lost the title of the richest person in the world.
Musk was toppled from the highest position in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the place was taken by Amazon.com's founder Jeff Bezos after shares in Tesla Inc. fell by 27 per cent on Monday (Mar 4).
Currently, Musk has a net worth of $197.7 billion and the fortune of Bezos is $200.3 billion.
This is the first time since 2021 that 60-year-old Bezos has topped the rankings of the richest people published by Bloomberg.
The gap in the wealth owned by 52-year-old Musk, and Bezos, which at one point was almost $142 billion, has been declining.
Although both belong to the "Magnificent Seven stocks" which have rallied US equity markets, since late 2022, the shares of Amazon have more than doubled. The shares of Tesla, which had peaked in 2021, are down by 50 per cent.
A major chunk of Bezos's fortune is generated from his 9 per cent stake in Amazon. He is the largest shareholder of the online retailer even after he unloaded 50 million shares, which were worth nearly $8.5 billion last month.
In 2017, Bezos became the world's richest person after taking over Microsoft Inc co-founder Bill Gates.
However, due to a massive rally in Tesla shares, Musk remained at the top spot for much of 2021 and Bezos kept lurking behind.
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Later in 2021, Bezos fell way behind and was not able to regain the top spot until now.
Meanwhile, 74-year-old Bernard Arnault, who is the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, - the largest luxury goods brand in the world, also ranks among the wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of $197.5 billion.
(With inputs from agencies)