Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has surpassed rocket competitor Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person.

Musk, who gained his money with PayPal, is worth $219 billion (£167 billion) according to Forbes’ most recent billionaires list.

It is the first time the 50-year-old South African-born entrepreneur, who hopes to colonise other planets with his SpaceX rocket programme, has led the list of the world’s super-rich.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 58, who has been the world’s richest person for the previous four years, has dropped to second place.

He is still rich $171 billion (£131 billion) and launched his Blue Origin rocket into orbit last year.

The flip comes in the same week that Musk paid more than £2 billion for a 9% share in Twitter.

He joined the social media platform’s board of directors only yesterday.

Rihanna, the 34-year-old pop sensation and cosmetics mogul, has also joined the ranks of the ultra-rich, becoming Barbados’ first billionaire.

She is one of just 327 women in Forbes’ annual list of 2,668 dollar millionaires, a decrease of 87 from 2021.

Another newcomer to the list is Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, 60.

However, war, the epidemic, and sluggish markets have taken their toll on many of the wealthy.

“The volatile stock market contributed to substantial reductions in the fortunes of many of the world’s wealthy,” Forbes’ Kerry Dolan stated.

However, according to Forbes, more than 1,000 billionaires are now wealthier than they were a year ago.

The top 20 are worth a total of $2 trillion (£1.5 billion).