People express disbelief as Elon Musk reclaims title of world’s richest person amid Twitter rebrand

People are expressing their disbelief over Elon Musk reclaiming his title as the world’s richest person just hours after launching his latest Twitter rebrand.

On 24 July, Forbes revealed that Musk was back in the number spot on the magazine’s real-time billionaires list. According to Forbes’ calculations, Musk’s net worth gained another $4.1bn on Monday, bringing him up to a total net worth of $240.7bn. The publication notes that this increase in his net worth came after Tesla’s stock climbed by more than 2.5 per cent on Monday morning.

Musk had briefly lost his number one spot on the list on Friday, after Tesla’s stock went down by nearly 10 per cent, causing his net worth to drop by $18bn.

Hours before he bounced back up on Forbes’ list, he launched a rebrand of Twitter, which replaced the famous blue bird with a new X logo. According to Linda Yaccarino, who Musk hired to be the chief executive of Twitter, the logo change is part of the company’s plan to transform “everything” on the app.

On Twitter, fans have expressed their confusion over Musk’s title as the richest person in the world, while poking fun at the new Twitter logo he’s launched.

“I genuinely have no idea how Elon Musk became the world’s richest man with business decisions like these,” one person wrote.

“Lol. Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the known universe … and it looks like he hired some 2.5 star rando on fiverr to do the logo animation,” another quipped.

“This simple change just made @elonmusk the richest man in the world,” a third tweeted, while sharing a photo of the new Twitter logo. “OFFICIALLY the power of X.”

Others poked fun atTwitter’s features amid the news of Musk’s latest achievement, with one joking: “Dear @elonmusk you’re the richest person on this planet. Stop sending me balloons on my profile, send me five million dollars instead, DM for bank details.”

Meanwhile, some made references to Musk’s personal life and social media presence in their jokes.

“Elon Musk is the world’s richest man. Has several kids. Runs several companies. Has over 100 million followers. And still finds time to reply to random people on Twitter that he doesn’t even know,” one individual wrote. “And you still think she was too busy to reply.”

On Monday, Twitter, which was taken over by Musk in October 2022, officially revealed its new logo. The tech billionaire reportedly informed employees by email that Twitter would become X, as well as redirected the domain X.com to Twitter.com.

Yaccarino first confirmed the switch in a series of tweets late on Sunday. “It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” she wrote.

She continued: “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

Musk’s net worth is now higher than Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, according to Forbes. On the real-time billionaires list, it lists Arnault and his family as the second richest in the world, with a net worth of $234.6bn as of 24 July. Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is currently the third richest person, while Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the fifth.

Musk is the father of 10 children with three different women. He welcomed his first child, Nevada, with his now ex-wife, Justine Wilson, in 2000. However, the infant tragically died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when he was 10 weeks old. The couple, who divorced in 2008, also share 19-year-old twins, Griffin and Vivian, and 17-year-old triplets, Kai, Saxon, and Damian.

Musk and his ex-girlfriend, Grimes, share a three-year-old son, X AE A-XII, and one-year-old daughter, Exa Dark Sideræl, who they welcomed via surrogate. The Space X founder also made headlines in July 2022 when reports broke that he was the father of twins with Shivon Zilis, a high-ranking executive at one of his companies, Neuralink. Court documents showed that the two children were born in November 2021.