Elon Musk surpasses Jeff Bezos to become world's richest person

Elon Musk's Tesla produces cars, but on the stock exchange, it gets treated like a tech high flier. Musk's firm has profited from the market hype around tech stocks during the pandemic and from investors betting on a greener future. The South African-born entrepreneur has overtaken Amazon's Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person with a total worth of $195 billion (€160 billion).

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (pictured with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez in front of the Taj Mahal) is in a class of his own. His e-commerce company has done brisk business during the pandemic, pushing Amazon shares to new records. Bezos, who is worth $185 billion, would have remained the world's richest person had it not been for a $38 billion divorce settlement in 2019.

The growing number of people working from home during the pandemic is a big boon for Eric Yuan. The founder of Zoom moved from China to the US when he was 27-years-old. After some years with rival WebEx, he launched his own video communications platform, with Zoom going public in 2019. Since the coronavirus crisis, shares have exploded. Yuan is estimated to own some $17 billion.

Distancing rules and closed workout studios have played into the hands of John Foley. Back in 2013, he was still touting his connected workout equipment at Kickstarter. Today, people are willing to spend a lot on Peloton's at-home gym equipment. The company's shares have tripled during the pandemic, unexpectedly turning the almost 50-year-old Foley into a billionaire.

Shopify enables traders to create their own online shops — a concept developed by Tobias Lütke. Born in Koblenz, Germany, he emigrated to Canada in 2002 and started out in a garage like so many other North Americans. Meanwhile, Shopify is Canada's most valuable enterprise, with its share price having doubled since March. Forbes magazine says 39-year-old Lütke is worth some $10 billion.

As early as January this year, Ugur Sahin started backing the right horse by working on a COVID-19 vaccine. The drug developed by his Germany-based company BioNTech could soon secure medical approval. The vaccine has pushed Sahin, who hails from Turkey, into the public spotlight and made him super-rich. The value of the shares he holds is estimated to be $5 billion.

Food services company HelloFresh is booming. Profits have more than tripled during the pandemic, figures from the latest quarterly earnings report showed in early November. Co-founder and shareholder Dominik Richter has been making the most of restaurants being closed. He's not quite in the same league as the richest pandemic profiteers, but he's got the right ingredients to catch up with them.

Jeff Bezos isn't the only one who's grown even richer through Amazon. Thanks to the shares she owns, Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott hit it big and climbed to top spot on the world's richest women list. She's estimated to be worth some $56 billion and obviously happened to be with the right partner at the right time.