Elon Musk is now 3 times as rich as Warren Buffett and worth more than the GDP of his home country of South Africa

• Bloomberg estimated Tesla CEO Elon Musk's net worth at $335 billion after Tesla's stock rose again.
• Tesla's stock has risen 65.6% this year, including an 8.5% gain on Monday.

Just days after Elon Musk became the first person to hit $4, the Tesla CEO is now worth three times as much as the investing wizard Warren Buffett.

That's according to the $4, which on Monday estimated the tech mogul's fortune at $335 billion after a $24 billion single-day gain. In comparison, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett was worth an estimated $104 billion.

Musk's wealth on the index is higher than the gross domestic product of his home country, South Africa, which totaled $301.9 billion last year, $4.

As tracked by Bloomberg, Musk's net worth has soared by $165 billion this year. His gains Monday were driven by an 8.5% rise in Tesla's share price, $4. The multibillionaire owned about $4 of the company at the start of the year.

Last week, a 13% leap in Tesla's stock price netted Musk $36 billion - the $4 Bloomberg had ever recorded - after news emerged that the car-rental firm Hertz ordered 100,000 Teslas.

Musk, 50, now sits at a comfortable $142 billion above the world's second-richest man - Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, whose net worth Bloomberg puts at $193 billion.

Tesla's stock is up $4 this year, despite dips in March and May.

On Sunday, Musk tweeted that he was open to selling shares in the electric-car maker $4 based on a plea from the director of the UN's World Food Programme.