Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, rising to status of the third person in history to be worth upwards of $200 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Musk's worth continues to rise in conjunction with stock in his Tesla electric vehicle, and his SpaceX rocket company was worth $74 billion in February, Forbes said.
Previously, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and French business tycoon Bernard Arnault held the distinction of the world's wealthiest. Since Bezos owns Blue Origin, a competing rocket enterprise, Musk took the opportunity for a jab his rival in an email to Forbes.
"I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal," Musk told Forbes in jest.
While space is an ambitious pursuit, Tesla on the earth holds the highest value for Musk at present. Tesla now has a market cap of approximately $792 billion, and shares at the company were up by more than 700% in 2020.
Musk owns just over 20% of Tesla Motors, accounting for much of his fortune. Despite a stock decline for Tesla Motors early in the year, Musk's net worth increased by more than $125 billion over the course of this year, Forbes magazine said.
Musk briefly fell into third place on the list of the world's richest people behind Bezos and Arnault before regaining the top spot on Monday.
Bezos reached the $200 billion milestone last August, according to Forbes. Musk surpassed Bezos as the world's richest person due to a 0.6% decline in Amazon stock.
Musk briefly became the richest person in the world in January before losing and then reclaiming the title. Last year, Musk vowed to get rid of nearly all of his personal possessions, He now lives in a 400-square-foot rental unit and owns only one house.
The competition isn't over between these two rocket company heads. Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against the federal government to contest a $2.9 billion NASA contract that was awarded to SpaceX, according to Forbes.