Elon Musk On Pace to Become Third Richest Person in World

Elon Musk had a great day on Wall Street to start the week — helping him leapfrog Mark Zuckerberg on the list for world’s richest and landing him in a comfortable third overall.

The Tesla and SpaceX executive saw his overall net worth skyrocket late Monday by a whopping $15 billion after the S&P announced it was bringing his automaker company into the fold among the most prestigious companies on the market.

It’d been a long time coming. Folks anticipated this to happen a few months ago … but it didn’t ’til just now, causing Tesla’s stock to jump 14% in after-hours trading. As a result, Elon’s personal value — seeing how he owns a good chunk of stock — also bumped up.

At the moment, he’s on pace to have a net worth of $117.5 billion … way more than Zuck at $106b, which was edging Elon out not too long ago by about $4b, or so. The two people higher than EM on the list currently — Bill Gates at $129b and Jeff Bezos $184b.

Some estimates as of Monday morning have Elon’s net worth slightly lower because of what Tesla’s trading at currently — around $460 a share — but either way … he’s in at #3.

It’s been quite a ride for the tech wiz these past few days — not only did he see his fortune balloon to new heights, he also saw one of his own rockets take 4 astronauts into space over the weekend … a feat that promises to firm up SpaceX’s role in future orbital travel.