Reshuffling of Wealth Among the Richest Billionaires: And How It Happened Overnight

Ask who the richest person in the world is, and some people will still answer - Bill Gates.

Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes' World's Billionaires list and was the wealthiest from 1995 to 1996, 1998 to 2007, 2009, and has been since 2014. Gates was number one on the Forbes 400 list from 1993 through to 2007, 2009, and 2014 through 2017.

Since Gates has held the position for the longest time in our generation, he deserves the confusion.

However, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos knocked him off the top spot in 2017. This can be attributed to Gates' philanthropic contributions, along with the outstanding success of Amazon.

This week, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has topped Microsoft founder Bill Gates after a meteoric rise in his personal fortune. According to BBC, Musk's net worth jumped by $7.2bn (£5.4bn) to $128bn after shares in his car firm Tesla surged. Furthermore, on the last trading day, Musk got even richer by $6.6 billion, according to Forbes' real-time data.

This comes after news that Elon Musk's company, Tesla will be included in the list of S&P 500 companies. The S&P 500, or simply the S&P, is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. The index is widely regarded as the best gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.

Tesla is already the most-valuable car firm in the world, although it manufactures only a fraction of the vehicles of rivals such as Toyota, VW, and General Motors.

As of writing, Forbes' real-time data tells us that Jeff Bezos is still the richest person in the world, and his position is further strengthened by the rise in the stock price of Amazon during the pandemic. Bezos is tailed by Bernard Arnault and Family, with a net worth of $140.6 billion. "One of the world's ultimate taste-makers, Bernard Arnault oversees an empire of 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora," says Forbes.

Then comes Elon Musk in number three, with a fortune of $126.2 billion. Our long-time richest guy Bill Gates is pushed back to number four. In case NEPSE investors are wondering about Warren Buffett, he stands at number 6, after another techie, Mark Zuckerberg, who is number 5.

According to Marketwatch, Warren Buffett’s conglomerate reported an 82% jump in its recent third-quarter profit as the value of its investment portfolio soared, but Berkshire Hathaway said the coronavirus pandemic continued to hurt its assorted businesses.