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- Elon Musk's wealth saw its biggest one-day rise yet, with a $25.1 billion increase.
- Tesla shares soared 20% as investors bought the dip after a sharp sell-off.
- Musk narrowed the gap with Amazon's Jeff Bezos on the Bloomberg billionaires index.
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After taking a battering during the tech sell-off, Elon Musk's wealth soared by a record $25 billion on Tuesday as Tesla's shares surged 20%.
The huge jump in the automaker took chief executive and cofounder Musk's wealth to $174 billion, according to Bloomberg's billionaires index. That is off a high of $210 billion touched in January, however.
Musk narrowed the gap with Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, who is worth $180 billion. Bezos's wealth rose $6 billion on Tuesday as Amazon's shares climbed almost 4%.
The wealth of the tech billionaires soared in 2020, as monetary and fiscal stimulus fueled a rally in companies that appeared to benefit from the pandemic.
Yet tech stocks tumbled sharply from mid February as rising bond yields put investors off companies that are yet to yield much profit.
Tesla, which investors think will take years to turn out big profits, was particularly hard hit, tumbling more than 35% from a high at the end of January.
Bond yields slipped back on Tuesday and investors took the opportunity to "buy the dip" in tech stocks.
Tesla stock soared 19.64% to $673.58, its biggest rise in more than a year, adding over $100 billion in value. Musk owns more than 20% of the company, which helped his net worth soar $25.1 billion in its biggest one-day gain yet, according to Bloomberg.
It meant Musk's wealth had risen $4.35 billion over 2021 so far during a volatile time for Tesla shares.
Bezos's wealth was down $10.3 billion year to date, the Bloomberg index showed. Amazon has fallen slightly over the year as investors shy away from companies that did well during COVID-19 and buy ones that stand to benefit from economies reopening.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is the third-richest person, with a total net worth of $137 billion. Louis Vuitton mogul Bernard Arnault is fourth, while Mark Zuckerberg is fifth.
Tesla's share price is also linked to bitcoin after the automaker bought $1.5 billion in January. Bitcoin has recovered sharply in recent days from a fall to below $44,000 at the end of February, to stand at $55,000 on Wednesday.