Elon Musk’s year of dizzying ascents hit a new apex Monday as the Tesla co-founder passed Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person.

The Tesla chief has just overtaken Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in the rich list, with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos still topping the pile.

The 49-year-old entrepreneur’s net worth soared from $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion, driven by yet another surge in Tesla’s share price. Musk has added $100.3 billion to his net worth this year, the most of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. In January he ranked 35th.

His advance up the wealth ranks has been driven largely by Tesla, whose market value is approaching $500 billion. About three-quarters of his net worth is comprised of Tesla shares, which are valued more than four times as much as his stake in Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.

source fortune.com

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