Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has donated more to the Trump campaign than anyone else, splashing out some $200 million, and campaigned alongside the president-elect.
Justin Merriman/Bloomberg
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is now the first person to have a net worth surpassing $400 billion. His assets—the biggest of which are Tesla, SpaceX and xAI—are now worth an estimated $428 billion as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to Forbes estimates. That makes Musk worth more than any billionaire Forbes has ever tracked in the nearly four decades of publishing a list of the world’s billionaires.
Musk’s net worth jumped by $58 billion Wednesday after Forbes confirmed that SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy back insiders’ shares in a deal valuing the rocket company at $350 billion and first reported by Bloomberg. At that valuation, Musk’s estimated 42% stake is worth $147 billion—up more than 60% from SpaceX’s last tender offer, which valued the company at $210 billion earlier this year. The new valuation makes SpaceX the most valuable private company in the world, more than TikTok parent ByteDance, ChatGPT creator OpenAI and payments giant Stripe.
“What’s really crazy about this is that almost no investors wanted to sell shares even at a $350B valuation! SpaceX reduced the amount of shares it bought back from employees in order to allow some new investors in,” Musk wrote on X—in which he owns an estimated 75% stake—on Wednesday.
It’s another milestone in a golden year for Musk, whose net worth is up more than $150 billion since January 1, 2024. That’s thanks in part to SpaceX’s skyrocketing valuation but also to his 13% stake in Tesla (excluding options), which accounts for the majority of his net worth (his stake is now worth nearly $170 billion excluding options), and his estimated 54% stake in artificial intelligence startup xAI, which private investors reportedly valued at $50 billion in November 2024. Shares of the electric vehicle company have popped more than 70% since the November 5 presidential election. CEO Musk has developed an increasingly close relationship to president-elect Trump, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours into his campaign and cabinet nomination process. He’s also set to have a role in the new administration as co-head of a planned Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which will advise on ways to cut the federal government’s expenses. It could possibly play a role regarding regulations that affect Musk’s companies.
It hasn’t been all good news for Musk. In early 2024, a Delaware judge voided his 2018 deal to receive options equaling an additional 9% of Tesla—then worth about $56 billion. The same judge reaffirmed that decision last week, despite Tesla shareholders voting to reapprove the options pay package for Musk in June. Forbes has discounted the options by 50% pending Musk’s appeal, giving them a discounted valuation of nearly $60 billion.
After moving in and out of the planet’s No. 1 richest spot in recent years, Musk is now worth some $180 billion more than the world’s second-richest person, Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos. French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, whose fortune has slumped this year, previously held the title of world’s richest person, and overtook Musk in January this year as Tesla shares weakened. In late May, bolstered by an upswing in Tesla shares, Musk became the world’s richest person again and has held onto that title since then.
Thanks to the soaring values of SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, Musk could remain the world’s richest person for the foreseeable future, given the large gap between Musk and Bezos. If his wealth continues to grow at the rate it has in 2024, which is unlikely, of course, he could be a trillionaire by the end of the decade.
