Tesla CEO Elon Musk edged past Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to grab the title of world's richest person, according to Bloomberg and other sources.
A 6% rise in Tesla shares early Thursday lifted the value of its CEO's stock holdings and options by $10 billion, taking his net worth to about $191 billion. A more modest rise of less than 2% lifted Bezos' Amazon shares by about $3 billion, putting his net worth at $187 billion.
Bloomberg's real-time billionaire tracker still has Bezos about $3 billion ahead of Musk. But the tracker doesn't update until the end of the trading day. Bloomberg posted an article confirming Musk's title.
Bill Gates is now a distant third at $132 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The Forbes real-time tracker still has Musk and Bezos $18 billion apart as of the close of trading Wednesday, after Bezos lost $4.3 billion in the value of his Amazon stock. Although the broader market was up sharply Wednesday, Big Tech stocks, including Amazon, fell on concerns that Democratic control of the Senate could mean greater scrutiny and regulation on the industry.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, left, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Another gain in Tesla shares Wednesday lifted Musk's net worth by $4.1 billion to $165.4 billion, according to Forbes' calculations. But Forbes does not appear to be giving Musk credit for the value of options he received in 2020 to buy an additional 33.6 million shares of Tesla.
Musk is also the primary shareholder and CEO of SpaceX, though SpaceX is privately held, so its value does not fluctuate as much as the value of Tesla.
Bezos' stake in Amazon shares increased by $75 billion in 2020, to $173.3 billion, given the huge increase in sales driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But that was nothing compared to Musk's holdings in Tesla. The 170 million shares of Tesla he already owns increased in value by $106 billion during 2020, as shares shot up 743% during the course of the year.
The value of his stock options he held at the start of the year increased by $14.2 billion, while the new options he received during the course of the year as part of his pay package had a value of $21.5 billion at year's end.
Musk caught Gates for the title of the world's second-richest person in late November, but Tesla shares have increased in value by 45% since then, lifting Musk's net worth by $53 billion over the past couple months.
Tesla shares are off to a good start in 2021, rising more than $90 a share, or 13%, since the start of this year, including the gains early Thursday. That has lifted Musk's Tesla holdings and options by about $21 billion this year. Meanwhile, Amazon's stock was down slightly for the year as of late morning Thursday.
Musk is set to qualify for options to buy another 16.9 million shares of Tesla early this year, according to company filings. Those options would be worth $12.3 billion at the shares' current value, after taking into account the exercise price.
Bezos does not have any Amazon stock options, only the 53.2 million shares he has as the company's founder. He would have had more if he hadn't given 19.7 million shares to his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, in his divorce. Bezos has also sold off or has given away shares as part of his charitable donations. Musk has never disposed of any Tesla shares.
Bezos isn't the only one Musk caught up to Thursday. ExxonMobil, the United States' most valuable oil company, had a market value at midday Thursday of just under $191 billion. So Musk, who is a leading advocate of switching drivers around the world from gas and diesel to electric vehicles, is for the time being at least worth more than America's largest oil company.
#23. Herbert Kohler Jr. and family
- Current residence: Kohler, Wisconsin (Population: 2,193)
- Net worth: $8.3 billion
- Source of wealth: plumbing fixtures
- Age: 81
Herbert Kohler Jr. is the grandson of John Michael Kohler, the founder of the well-known plumbing fixture company. Currently acting as the executive chairman of the company, Kohler Jr. was also the CEO until 2015 when he stepped down from the position after 43 years. Despite his billionaire status, Kohler still resides in the small town where the family company was founded back in 1873.
#22. Pablo Legorreta
- Current residence: Sag Harbor, New York (Population: 2,184)
- Net worth: $2.6 billion
- Source of wealth: investments
- Age: 57
Pablo Legorreta is the founder of Royalty Pharma, the largest acquirer of pharmaceutical revenue streams in the world. He founded the company in 1996 and currently acts as the sole manager of the company’s $17 billion in assets. The billionaire calls the small village of Sag Harbor on Long Island, New York, home.
#21. Gary Friedman
- Current residence: Belvedere, California (Population: 2,098)
- Net worth: $2.2 billion
- Source of wealth: Furniture retail
- Age: 63
Gary Friedman, CEO and chairman of high-end furniture retailer RH (formerly Restoration Hardware), has spent years making a name for himself in the retail space. Beginning his professional life as a stock boy for Gap, Friedman helped grow Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma Inc. from million- to billion-dollar companies. He lives in Belvedere, California, a small town in Marin County he fell in love with early in his life. Friedman bought his first house there in 2003.
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#20. Nelson Peltz
- Current residence: Bedford, New York (Population: 2,074)
- Net worth: $1.7 billion
- Source of wealth: investments
- Age: 78
Nelson Peltz, who made his fortune by investing in small companies, bought his 27-room home in Bedford, New York, in the 1980s for $6 million. In the ’90s, Peltz annoyed many of his neighbors by commuting to work via his 52-foot-long helicopter, bypassing the traffic from his home to New York City.
#19. George Soros
. Soros purchased his home in Katonah, New York, from author Michael Crichton
for $19 millionin 2003. He later bought two adjacent parcels of land from Crichton.
#18. Amy Wyss
- Current residence: Wilson, Wyoming (Population: 1,731)
- Net worth: $2.0 billion
- Source of wealth: medical equipment
- Age: 50
Amy Wyss is the daughter of Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, who started the medical equipment company Synthes. In 2012, Johnson & Johnson bought Synthes for $19.7 billion, of which Wyss received a portion. Just a few years earlier in 2007, Wyss launched the LOR Foundation with the aim of bettering the quality of life for rural American families.
#17. Larry Robbins
- Current residence: Alpine, New Jersey (Population: 1,513)
- Net worth: $1.9 billion
- Source of wealth: hedge funds
- Age: 51
Larry Robbins is the founder and CEO of New York-based hedge fund Glenview Capital Management, which manages about $8 billion in assets. Robbins is also active in New York City area philanthropy, advocating for education reform through the Robbins Family Foundation and serving as chairman of the Robin Hood Foundation, which targets local poverty.
#16. James Leprino
- Current residence: Indian Hills, Colorado (Population: 1,408)
- Net worth: $3.0 billion
- Source of wealth: cheese
- Age: 83
James Leprino is the owner of Leprino Foods, the largest mozzarella cheese producer in the world. In fact, Leprino Foods sells cheese to Domino’s, Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s. The company has a processing facility in northern Colorado and is headquartered in Denver.
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#15. George Yancopoulos
- Current residence: Yorktown Heights, New York (Population: 1,390)
- Net worth: $1.3 billion
- Source of wealth: pharmaceuticals
- Age: 61
George Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer at biotech firm Regeneron, is also the first pharmaceutical research chief to become a billionaire. Currently holding about 2% of the company’s stock, Yancopoulos joined Regeneron in 1989—a year after its founding. During his time with the firm, Yancopoulos hgas invented seven FDA-approved drugs and developed a technology platform that has the potential to invent hundreds more.
#14. John Malone
- Current residence: Elizabeth, Colorado (Population: 1,127)
- Net worth: $6.4 billion
- Source of wealth: cable television
- Age: 79
John Malone moved to Colorado to work at Tele-Communications, Inc. when he was 31 years old, where he developed a relationship with cable operator Bob Magness, who often invited Malone to his ranch. This fostered Malone’s love of the Colorado landscape and land conservation, and he went on to own 170,000 acres of land in Colorado, 230,000 acres in New Mexico, and a similar amount in Maine.
#13. Marian Ilitch
- Current residence: Bingham Farms, Michigan (Population: 1,101)
- Net worth: $4.1 billion
- Source of wealth: Little Caesars
- Age: 87
Marian Ilitch is a longtime Michigan resident who graduated from Fordson High School and attended Dearborn Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. With her husband Mike, Ilitch founded Little Caesars in Garden City, Michigan, and grew the brand into the world’s largest carry-out pizza chain. The Ilitches also bought the Detroit Red Wings in 1982, and the Fox Theatre in Detroit in 1987.
#12. Katharine Rayner
- Current residence: East Hampton, New York (Population: 1,034)
- Net worth: $5.2 billion
- Source of wealth: media, automotive
- Age: 75
Katharine Rayner is the heiress to Cox Enterprises, which was founded by her mother, Anne Cox Chambers. However, she is not thought to have an active role in the company. Instead, she is a member of the board of the New York Public Library and the Morgan Library. Rayner is also an active gardener at her home in East Hampton, New York.
#11. Maggie Hardy Knox
- Current residence: Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania (Population: 1,016)
- Net worth: $1.4 billion
- Source of wealth: building materials
- Age: 55
Maggie Hardy Knox (formerly Maggie Magerko) inherited 84 Lumber—the country’s largest privately-owned building materials supplier—from her father, Joe Hardy. The company, which did $3.86 billion in 2018 sales revenue, has more than 250 stores in 30 states. Hardy Knox’s company derives its name from the village where it was founded, Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, a 20-minute drive from where she now resides.
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#10. John Tu
- Current residence: Rolling Hills, California (Population: 896)
- Net worth: $6.5 billion
- Source of wealth: computer hardware
- Age: 79
John Tu was raised in Taiwan and earned his college degree in Germany before moving to the United States in 1971. With his business partner David Sun, Tu started Kingston Technology, a company that produces storage and memory products. Tu still works at Kingston in a cubicle on the sales floor.
#9. Michael Price
- Current residence: Far Hills, New Jersey (Population: 860)
- Net worth: $1.1 billion
- Source of wealth: investments
- Age: 68
Financial guru Michael Price is the head of MFP investors, a New York hedge fund that manages more than $1 billion in assets. He began his career as a research assistant at Heine Securities, before eventually buying and selling the company, leaving in 2001 to begin his own venture.
#7. Steve Ballmer
- Current residence: Hunts Point, Washington (Population: 432)
- Net worth: $69.8 billion
- Source of wealth: Microsoft
- Age: 64
Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer—who can count Craig McCaw among his neighbors—bought his four-bedroom home and two acres of property in Hunts Point, Washington, in 1987 for $1.33 million. Today, the home of the Los Angeles Clippers owner is valued at more than $15 million.
#6. James Cargill II
- Current residence: Birchwood, Wisconsin (Population: 356)
- Net worth: $2.8 billion
- Source of wealth: Cargill
- Age: 71
James Cargill II is one of nine heirs to the Cargill corporation, which was founded by his great-grandfather, W. W. Cargill, in 1865. The company is the largest privately owned business in the country: the family is in control of 90% of it, with Cargill II owning an estimated 7%. Famously private, he has long opted to stay out of the public eye, which may explain his choice to move to a small town.
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#5. Randal J. Kirk
- Current residence: Manalapan, Florida (Population: 280)
- Net worth: $1.8 billion
- Source of wealth: pharmaceuticals
- Age: 66
Entirely self-made, Randal J. Kirk has held a host of positions, from greeting card salesman to attorney, to drug and vaccine distributor, to CEO of the biotech firm Precigen (formerly Intrexon). Founded in 1998, his company is known for its innovative products like genetically modified salmon and apples that never brown. Born into an Air Force family, Kirk moved around the country during his childhood, eventually settling on a Virginia farm before moving to Florida.
#4. Jacqueline Mars
- Current residence: The Plains, Virginia (Population: 194)
- Net worth: $28.9 billion
- Source of wealth: candy, pet food
- Age: 81
Jacqueline Mars—the heiress of the Mars candy company—grew up on a 740-acre farm in The Plains, Virginia, where the hogs and steers on the family property were fed what had been deemed as “imperfect” M&Ms shipped in from the company’s New Jersey plant. Mars lives just a few miles from the farm today at a property called Stonehall Farm, and also owns a penthouse at the Watergate in Washington D.C.
#3. Neerja Sethi
- Current residence: Fisher Island, Florida (Population: 106)
- Net worth: $1.0 billion
- Source of wealth: IT consulting, outsourcing
- Age: 65
Born in India, Neerja Sethi started the IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel with her husband Bharat Desai (#2 on our list) in 1980. The couple began the business in their small Troy, Michigan, apartment and grew it to an international player before selling it to French firm Atos SE for $3.4 billion in 2018.
#2. Bharat Desai
- Current residence: Fisher Island, Florida (Population: 106)
- Net worth: $1.4 billion
- Source of wealth: IT consulting
- Age: 68
Although Fisher Island, Florida, might sound remote and is only accessible by boat, it’s actually the country’s most millionaire-dense zip code where residents have an average annual salary of almost $700,000. The man-made barrier island even requires that its residents pay membership dues, which are more than $22,000 each year and require an initial contribution of $250,000.
#1. Nicholas Pritzker
s who founded the Hyatt hotel chain. He initially earned his wealth by leading the efforts to develop new Hyatt hotels before selling off most of his stock and refocusing his attention to things like clean energy. Today, he acts as co-chair of the Clean Energy Trust, an investment group backs Midwestern clean energy companies.
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Billionaires who live in the smallest American towns
viduals—or people with $30 million or more in assets—are in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
Of the global billionaire population, more live in New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing, and London than anywhere else in the world, reports Forbes. But of the 680 billionaires that live in the United States, quite a few have chosen to live in quieter locales that are much more remote, have sparse populations, and offer plenty of space for sprawling complexes of mansions and gardens.
Phoenix Marketing International in 2019 reported the small town with the highest concentration of millionaires in the country is Summit Park, Utah (based on data from U.S. Census Bureau). Of the households in the Salt Lake City suburb known for its luxurious ski resorts and famed film festivals, 12.5% are millionaires, and the median annual income among residents is a whopping $94,952.
And of states, Maryland has the most millionaires per capita, with more than one in 12 households reporting assets of $1 million or more. According to experts, this could be because of the growth of government contracting and lobbying in the Washington D.C. area. New Jersey takes second place for the most millionaires per capita, followed by Connecticut, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Stacker compiled a list of 25 billionaires that live in the smallest American towns, using current data from the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List and 2018 5-Year Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (released December 2019). Billionaires are ranked by the population of their towns, and ties are broken by their net worth. The billionaire, their place of residence, their net worth, their age, and where their wealth came from are all included in this list.
Read on to find out where the rich and powerful live in the hidden corners of the United States.
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#25. Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer
- Current residence: Rancho Santa Fe, California (Population: 2,591)
- Net worth: $3.1 billion
- Source of wealth: Cargill
- Age: 59
Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer is an heiress of Cargill, a food and agricultural corporation that is the largest private company in the United States. Meyer is an equestrian, and trains show-jumping horses on her farm in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
#24. Amy Goldman Fowler
- Current residence: Rhinebeck, New York (Population: 2,583)
- Net worth: $3.0 billion
- Source of wealth: real estate
- Age: 66
Amy Goldman Fowler lives on a 200-acre farm in Rhinebeck, New York, where she gardens and lives with her husband, who is an agriculturalist. Fowler is a fierce advocate for seed saving, plant breeding, and heirloom fruits and vegetables and is the vice chair of the New York Botanical Garden. Her father, Sol Goldman, made his money in real estate in New York City, and Fowler worked in his office when she was younger.
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