Elon Musk surpasses Bill Gates as the world's second-richest person as Tesla's market value nears $500 billion

Elon Musk has overtaken Bill Gates as the world's second-richest person. His net worth is now $128 billion.
Musk's wealth has been on a steady climb this month: Tesla's market cap soared as high as $498 billion Monday as it is set to join the S&P 500 in December.
The jump in Musk's net worth places him second to Jeff Bezos, whose net worth stands at $182 billion.
He predicted last year that self-driving Teslas, which are still being refined, would boost the company's market cap to $500 billion.

Elon Musk has officially overtaken Bill Gates to become the world's second-richest person.

Musk saw his net worth rise by about $7 billion to $128 billion on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as Tesla's market value nears $500 billion.
He predicted last year that self-driving Teslas, which are still a work in progress, would boost the automaker's market cap to $500 billion. At the time of Musk's prediction, its market cap was under $45 billion.
The increase in Musk's wealth places him second to Jeff Bezos, who is currently the world's richest person with a net worth of $182 billion.

Musk and Gates have already had a conflicting year as they have repeatedly disagreed over everything from the coronavirus to electric cars. The public differences began when Gates said even though he thought Tesla has helped drive electric-car innovation, he bought one from Porsche. Separately, Musk even called Gates a "knucklehead" for criticizing his efforts on conducting coronavirus antibody studies.

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