The richest man on planet Earth, Elon Musk, is now worth a stratospheric $677 billion and appears well on course to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
Musk’s wealth has surged into a higher orbit than ever before after SpaceX was valued at $800 billion, more than double its worth just four months ago in August.
In a single day, Musk added a jaw-dropping $168 billion to his fortune, making him far wealthier than anyone else on the planet.
According to Forbes magazine’s Real-Time Billionaires Index on Tuesday, his wealth was hovering around $498 billion just two days earlier as whispers of SpaceX’s giant valuation electrified the market.
SpaceX’s latest valuation means Musk’s 42 per cent stake is now worth an eye-watering $168 billion. He also owns a 12 per cent stake in Tesla, currently valued at $197 billion.
Besides that, Musk has a relatively new start-up, xAI, an artificial intelligence company that he has merged with X, formerly Twitter. Forbes reckons he has a 53 per cent stake worth $60 billion. xAI’s valuation has also surged and it is now estimated to be worth $230 billion, more than double its value in March, when analysts put it at $113 billion.
To put Musk’s dominance in perspective, he is now $425 billion richer than Google co-founder Larry Page, the world’s second-richest person, who was valued at $252 billion. Meanwhile, Forbes’s real-time billionaire tracking calculates Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani’s net worth at about $111.4 billion, making him India’s richest individual.
Market analysts are predicting that SpaceX could hold an initial public offering at an extraordinary $1.5 trillion sometime in 2026, far eclipsing the record for the world’s largest IPO. Saudi Aramco’s $29-billion offering in 2019 and China’s Alibaba’s $25-billion float in 2014 were previously considered stock market landmarks.
Musk has had a rollercoaster year beyond the wealth charts. He started out 2025 as a consultant to US President Donald Trump’s newly installed government, heading the Department of Governmental Efficiency, better known as Doge. His team peremptorily shut down government departments and sent thousands of officials home permanently.
Unsurprisingly, the mercurial Musk soon fell out with the capricious Trump and left the administration. During his time in politics, he and treasury secretary Scott Bessent were said to have come to blows in the corridors of the White House.
Musk also realised that Tesla, the electric car company that sits at the centre of his empire, was running into trouble as competition intensified from Chinese vehicle makers such as BYD. The company’s stock has recently rebounded as Musk appeared to bring the dream of autonomous, driverless cars closer to reality.
According to Deutsche Bank, investors seeking a winning car stock may still favour Tesla, citing Musk’s focus on artificial intelligence, the growth of its robotaxi business and the development of humanoid robots.
SpaceX’s soaring valuation has also sent Google’s stock shooting upwards. In 2015, Google invested $900 million to buy roughly 7 per cent of the space rocket company, a stake that could now be worth around $111 billion.
Despite the heady valuations, some analysts are sounding cautionary notes about SpaceX, warning that its worth may be inflated and driven more by expectation than by current revenue. Musk’s long-term ambitions, including Mars colonisation, could divert cash from nearer-term priorities.
Observers also note that when SpaceX eventually goes public, investors may demand clearer evidence of profitability, potentially diminishing the current $800-billion valuation.
Still, Musk’s wealth has risen at an extraordinary pace. He was estimated to be worth $24 billion in March 2020. By August that year, his fortune had jumped to $100 billion. Five months later, in January 2021, he shot to the top of the rich list with an estimated net worth of $190 billion. By September that year, he had passed the $200-billion mark and, in December 2024, Musk set a new record by becoming the first person to cross $400 billion.
The only other individual to have briefly exceeded that level was Larry Ellison, whose valuation has since fallen sharply.
In November, Tesla shareholders voted to award Musk stock options potentially worth a trillion dollars if he multiplied the company’s value over the coming years, though a US court has since stalled that package.
Wealth analysts are now watching to see how long it takes Musk to reach $700 billion. He is just $23 billion away from that mark and many predict that, even without the massive Tesla stock option award, he could soon become the world’s first trillionaire.
