Tesla billionaire boss Elon Musk has made history to become the first-ever person to hit a $500 billion net worth, beating out every other billionaire alive. The number was confirmed at 3:30 p.m. Eastern by Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires tracker, making Elon $150 billion richer than Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who now sits in second place after temporarily beating the ‘DogeFather’ just a few weeks ago, as Cryptopolitan reported.
This record comes less than a year after Elon Musk passed the $400 billion mark in December, with the new figure now putting him on the pathway to becoming the first trillionaire. The development came after Tesla stock registered a 4% surge in a day, with the one-day surge seeing Elon Musk add $9.3 billion to his fortune.
Since Elon Musk stepped down from his role at DOGE, Tesla stock has nearly doubled in value, bringing the company’s total market cap to within 10% of its highest-ever valuation. As of now, Elon’s 12% stake in Tesla is valued at $191 billion, and it doesn’t even include the massive performance-based stock options package from 2018, which would be worth another $133 billion today, but sadly, a Delaware judge voided the award last year.
Elon Musk hits $500 billion net worth as Tesla board proposes $1 trillion pay package
While the 2018 stock grant remains stuck in a legal tussle, Tesla’s board of directors introduced a new pay plan for Elon Musk in September. This newly proposed package could give him stock worth up to $1 trillion, before taxes and share unlocking costs, if Tesla reaches extreme growth milestones. The plan includes a target for Tesla to multiply its market cap more than eight times over the next ten years.
“It’s not about ‘compensation’, but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots,” Musk said on X. “If I can just get kicked out in the future by activist shareholder advisory firms who don’t even own Tesla shares themselves, I’m not comfortable with that future.” But Tesla alone isn’t what made the $500 billion number possible. Elon Musk also owns a huge share of SpaceX, the rocket company he started in 2002.
In August, SpaceX’s private valuation surged to $400 billion, up from $350 billion in December after a new tender offer. Elon Musk holds 42% of SpaceX, and that stake is now worth $168 billion according to Forbes at press time. On top of that, there’s xAI Holdings, Elon’s AI startup that he merged with X (formerly Twitter). The combined entity is valued at $113 billion, and Elon owns 53%, which equals $60 billion more in his pocket.
Elon Musk was worth $24.6 billion just five years ago, in March 2020, but by August of that same year, Tesla’s stock rally had made him the fifth person to hit $100 billion. In November 2021, Elon Musk became the world’s richest person after reaching $190 billion. He became the third person to cross $200 billion in September 2021, after Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault. Then came $300 billion in November, and finally $400 billion in December 2024.
