Elon Musk is now the third-richest person in the world.

Musk passed Facebook Inc co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Aug 31 as shares of Tesla Inc continued their unrelenting rally after undergoing a forward stock split. Musk is now worth US$115.4bil compared with US$110.8bil for Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Also on Aug 31, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the world’s richest woman, passing L’Oréal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. Scott, 50, who received a 4% stake in Amazon.com Inc as part of her divorce from founder Bezos, is now worth US$66.4bil .

Musk, 49, has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by US$87.8bil this year as Tesla shares surged almost 500%. Also helpful: an audacious pay package - the largest corporate pay deal ever struck between a chief executive officer and a board of directors - that could yield him more than US$50bil if all goals are met.

Tesla, a favorite among amateur investors on online trading firm Robinhood Financial, has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the boom in retail investing during pandemic lockdowns. At one point last month, almost 40,000 Robinhood accounts added Tesla shares during a single four-hour span. And the trend isn’t limited to the US: South Korean retail investors have piled into Tesla this year and hold about a 1% stake in the American auto maker.

Tesla’s US$464bil market value now exceeds that of retail behemoth Walmart Inc, the largest company in the US by revenue.

Last week, Musk joined Zuckerberg, Bezos and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates in the rarefied centibillionaire club as tech stocks rose.

The heady pace of wealth accumulation in recent months is in stark contrast to the state of the global economy. Growth has slumped sharply since the pandemic began with companies laying off millions of workers and consumer demand cratering. The brunt of economic pain has been borne by young and lower-wage workers, whose jobs are typically more vulnerable to Covid-related layoffs.

The rising income inequality has provoked sharp responses from many progressive politicians and critics on the left. US Senator Bernie Sanders this month introduced legislation to tax “extreme wealth gains” during the pandemic.

Musk still has a long way to become the world’s richest person. Bezos is worth more than US$200bil .

 - Bloomberg