Elon Musk has long held the title of the world's richest person, barring a few instances where leaders such as Oracle's Larry Ellison briefly surpassed him. Those cases appear unlikely to recur anytime soon, as the tech CEO's net worth surged to a meteoric $600 billion on Monday, driven by speculation over a SpaceX IPO.
According to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Musk's net worth has now exceeded $684 billion, making him the first person globally to reach that figure, amid reports that his SpaceX startup could go public at a valuation of $800 billion.
Musk added a stunning $168 billion to his wealth in a single day on Monday, followed by a further $8 billion on Tuesday, bringing his net worth to $684.2 billion.
More wealth than all combined
Elon Musk's net worth not only reached a historic high, but it also made him richer than some of the richest billionaires around the world.
The Tesla CEO is now richer than Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang— combined.
Here's a breakdown of all the billionaires' wealth and how Elon Musk's net worth compares to theirs, as per the Forbes Real Time Billionaires list.
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $235.1 billion.
- Meta Platform CEO Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is $225.3 billion.
- Jensen Huang, the CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, has a total wealth of $154.4 billion.
Together, their wealth adds up to $614.8 billion. This means that Elon Musk would still have $69.4 billion to spend and retain his billionaire status, even after combining the wealth of Bezos, Zuckerberg and Huang.
According to the Forbes list, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang are currently ranked as the 4th, 6th and 8th richest people in the world.
How did Elon Musk's net worth reach $600 billion?
Elon Musk, who was the first to surpass $500 billion in net worth in October, owns an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX, which is preparing to go public next year.
Musk's net worth also got a boost from his roughly 12% stake in Tesla, shares of which have risen 13% so far this year, despite the company's slumping sales. They rose by more than 3% on Tuesday, 16 December, after Musk said the company was testing robotaxis without safety monitors in the front passenger seat.
In November, Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk, the largest corporate pay package in history, as investors endorsed his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
Additionally, his artificial-intelligence startup xAI is in advanced talks to raise $15 billion in fresh equity at a valuation of $230 billion, according to a media report cited by Reuters.
