Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is inching closer to an unprecedented milestone in global wealth, as his net worth surpassed the $500 billion mark this week — putting him nearly halfway to becoming the world’s first trillionaire, according to Forbes.
The 54-year-old Tesla and SpaceX CEO briefly reached a net worth of $500.1 billion on Wednesday before a slight dip brought it to $499.1 billion, data from the publication’s “Real-Time Billionaires” tracker showed. The surge comes as Tesla shares continue to rebound following a turbulent period marked by Musk’s controversial foray into political debates and policy commentary.
Musk remains firmly atop the world’s wealth rankings, significantly ahead of his closest rivals. Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison follows with a net worth of $350.7 billion, while Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg ranks third at $245.8 billion.
The South African-born billionaire’s meteoric rise is the result of a career spanning over two decades of relentless innovation and high-stakes ventures. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and briefly attending Stanford University before dropping out, Musk made his first fortune in 1999 by selling an online publishing software company to Compaq for over $300 million.
He later co-founded X.com, which evolved into PayPal and was acquired by eBay in 2002. Using the proceeds, Musk launched SpaceX the same year with the goal of revolutionizing space travel, and joined Tesla as chairman in 2004, steering the electric car manufacturer into a global powerhouse.
Today, both companies are pivotal drivers of Musk’s immense fortune, with SpaceX’s soaring valuation and Tesla’s stock recovery fueling his climb toward the trillion-dollar mark.
Analysts say that if current growth trends continue — particularly with SpaceX’s expanding satellite internet business and Tesla’s push into new energy and autonomous driving markets — Musk could achieve trillionaire status within the next decade, rewriting the history of personal wealth in the process.
