Elon Musk has become the world's richest person after Tesla's shares soared and his net worth hit an eye-watering $185bn (£136bn).
The Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur claims the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had held it since 2017.
Musk's electric car company Tesla – of which he owns 20% of shares – has surged in value this year, and hit a market value of $700bn (£516bn) for the first time on Wednesday.
Thanks to the seven-fold share increase in the last year, it now makes the EV and clean energy company worth more than some of the world's most successful car manufacturers, overtaking Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined.
Musk reacted to the news of his number one spot in his signature style, responding to a fellow Twitter user who had shared the news with the remark “how strange” and then and “well, back to work …”
One of the South African-born billionaire previous tweets offers an insight into how he views his vast wealth: “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth, and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves,” it reads.
Just two months ago Musk, who helped found Tesla only 17 years ago, surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person.
Keyword: Elon Musk becomes world's richest person as wealth tops $185bn