Tesla CEO and new Texan Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world

Tesla CEO and recent Texas transplant Elon Musk has surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the wealthiest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

"How strange," the South African entrepreneur tweeted on Thursday in response to the news.

Musk is now worth $188.5 billion, compared to Bezos' $187 billion, thanks to Tesla's rising stock prices, which have increased nearly 750% since 2019.

As a result, Musk's net worth has skyrocketed over the last year in what Bloomberg called "possibly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history."

Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company, announced last month that he had moved to Texas from California. Austin realtor Cord Shiflet confirmed to Austonia that Musk and his representatives have been touring area properties.

Musk cited his two biggest projects—the forthcoming $1.1 billion Tesla Gigafactory in Southeast Travis County and the Starship prototype that SpaceX is developing in South Tesla—as reasons for the move.

Last year, Musk chafed against COVID-19 regulations in the state of California, where Tesla operates a factory, and threatened to move the company's headquarters.

There is also the issue of taxes.

California has the highest income tax rate of any state in the country. Texas, on the other hand, has none. By relocating, Musk could save potentially billions of dollars in taxes on his Tesla compensation package.

Assuming the five-county Austin metro has a median annual income of $71,576 and a population of 2.23 million people, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, Musk's net worth is greater than the annual income of the entire metro population.

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