Elon Musk sets record with $500 billion fortune

Elon Musk has officially become the first individual in history to amass a net worth of half a trillion dollars.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires tracker valued Musk at $500 billion, cementing his position as the richest person on the planet and putting him halfway to the once-unthinkable milestone of a trillion-dollar fortune.

Tesla shares rose nearly 4% during trading on Wednesday, adding $9.3 billion to Musk’s wealth. The electric vehicle maker’s stock has nearly doubled since April, when Musk announced he would step back from his role as head of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus more on Tesla.

With Tesla’s market cap now within 10% of its all-time high, Musk’s 12% stake in the company is valued at $191 billion.

Musk’s fortune extends well beyond Tesla. His 42% stake in SpaceX, now valued at $400 billion after a private tender offer in August, is worth $168 billion.

He also holds a 53% stake in xAI Holdings, the company formed in March through the merger of his AI startup and X (formerly Twitter), valued at $60 billion.

These assets combined with Tesla’s surging performance pushed Musk past the $500 billion threshold, although he ended the day slightly below the mark at $499.1 billion.

Still, the milestone represents the latest in a string of records Musk has set. He first crossed $100 billion in August 2020, $200 billion in September 2021, $300 billion in November 2021, and $400 billion in December 2024.

If his current trajectory continues, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire by March 2033, when the first vesting period begins for a new Tesla pay package that could ultimately award him additional stock worth up to $1 trillion.

Musk, however, insists it’s not about the money. “It’s not about ‘compensation,’ but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots,” he wrote last month on X.

For now, Musk stands alone at the top of the wealth rankings, $150 billion ahead of Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison in second place, a gap wider than the net worth of nearly every other billionaire alive.