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Key Takeaways
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, saw his net worth surpass $500 billion in October 2025. He is the first person to hit that milestone.
- Musk is Tesla’s largest shareholder, with 19.7% of the company’s equity as of August, 2025. Rising Tesla share prices fueled Musk’s record net worth.
- A new proposed pay package, that could grant Musk additional Tesla shares, could push his net worth over $1 trillion.
The world’s richest man just got richer. Elon Musk became the first person with a net worth of $500 billion in October 2025, according to Forbes.
Rising Tesla shares fueled this jump in Musk’s fortune. The company’s stock was up nearly 17% year-to-date as of Oct. 2, 2025.
Musk’s wealth has been in the news for a proposed new pay package that could make him a trillionaire. Tesla (TSLA) is asking its investors to approve a massive pay package for Musk which would be valued at nearly $1 trillion if he can lead the company to achieve certain valuation and operations milestones over the next 10 years, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Shareholders are set to vote on this pay package in November.
Musk’s net worth is largely driven by his stakes in Tesla and privately held rocket and satellite manufacturing company, SpaceX. The additional shares under the new pay deal could push the value of Musk-owned Tesla shares to over $2 trillion.
Tesla’s share price increased more than 60% in 2024, with some of those gains coming after President Trump won the election in November. An insider share sale of SpaceX in December 2024 also boosted Musk’s net worth by about $50 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Musk’s wealth surpasses other notable billionaires including Amazon.com (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s (META) Mark Zuckerberg, and Oracle’s (ORCL) Larry Ellison according to Forbes and Bloomberg.
Here’s how the Tesla CEO made his billions.
Tesla
esla is one of the largest carmakers in the world. The company builds and designs fully electric vehicles and also makes energy generation and storage products like solar panels, solar roof tiles, and battery systems. Its vehicles include sedans, mid-size SUVs and the CyberTruck.
Tesla was founded in 2003 as Tesla Motors by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk invested in the company and was a member of the board starting in 2004. He became CEO in 2008.
Musk was allowed to claim the title of cofounder after an out-of-court settlement. Tesla went public in an initial public offering (IPO) on June 29, 2010. In 2021, Tesla moved its headquarters from its native Palo Alto, Calif., to Austin, Texas. In July 2023, Tesla unveiled its first Cybertruck built in its Texas factory, almost two years behind the original schedule.
Musk is Tesla’s largest shareholder, and owns 19.7% of the company’s stock as of August 29, 2025.
SpaceX
Musk is also the cofounder and CEO of SpaceX, a rocket manufacturing company that counts NASA as a client and helps resupply the International Space Station.
SpaceX became the most valuable startup in the world when it considered raising funds at a $400 billion valuation in July 2025, according to Bloomberg.
Musk owns 42% of SpaceX, which has launched over 400 rockets since it was founded in 2002, and has more than 4 million subscribers for its Starlink internet service.
X (Twitter)
In April 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion after threatening a hostile takeover. The deal was finalized in October 2022 after Twitter sued Musk for trying to back out of the deal.
His takeover has been controversial, as he laid off much of the company’s workforce and added a paid subscription service ($8 per month) for anyone who wants their account verified. In July 2023, Musk rebranded Twitter as X, replacing the blue bird logo with the letter.
Fidelity estimates that X is worth about $9.4 billion, according to Forbes, per disclosures released by the investment firm in September 2024. Fidelity’s stake in X is now worth about $4.19 million, down about 79% before Musk bought X.
xAI
Musk founded artificial intelligence firm xAI in 2023. In July 2025, the company was looking to raise fund from investors that would peg its valuation up to $200 billion, according to the Financial Times. The company also raised $10 billion vis loans and cash investments in June, following a $300 million share sale in July, the Financial Times reported.
Musk owns about 54% of xAI, per Forbes. The team at xAI is led by Musk and others who have previously worked with OpenAI, DeepMind, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and Tesla.
The Boring Company
Musk is also the founder of The Boring Company, a construction company that aims to “solve traffic” by building tunnels. The company raised $675 million in April 2022 at a valuation of $5.7 billion, according to a release.
Neuralink
Musk co-founded a company called Neuralink which designed a “brain-computer interface,” a chip that can be implanted into the brain and would allow users to control their computers and mobile devices with their thoughts.
According to the company’s website, Neuralink is working to help those with quadriplegia, a symptom of paralysis that affects a person’s limbs and body from the neck down, with the ability to control their devices with their thoughts.
The company, which launched its first human trial in January 2024, was valued at an estimated $9 billion, after a raising $600 million earlier this year according to Semafor.
