By Obinna Uballa
Elon Musk on Wednesday became the first individual to reach a net worth of $500 billion, buoyed by a rebound in Tesla’s share price and swelling valuations of his other ventures in space and artificial intelligence.
The milestone comes less than a year after his fortune crossed $400 billion, underscoring his widening gap as the world’s wealthiest person.
Musk’s fortune briefly topped $500 billion before closing at $499.1 billion at 5 p.m. ET, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires index. His wealth is tied closely to his 12% stake in Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker.
Tesla stock has gained 14% this year after a rocky start, aided by Musk’s $1 billion personal share purchase in September, widely seen as a vote of confidence in the company’s pivot to artificial intelligence and robotics.
Reuters reports that the carmaker’s board has also proposed a record $1 trillion pay package for Musk, the largest in corporate history, with ambitious financial and operational targets.
The plan, revealed on September 5, has helped drive Tesla shares up nearly 36% since then. Analysts say the compensation package is designed to sharpen Musk’s focus on Tesla as he juggles multiple ventures.
Musk’s empire extends across industries, giving him an outsized influence over sectors from clean energy and autonomous cars to space exploration and artificial intelligence.
His AI startup xAI is reportedly raising funds at a $200 billion valuation, while SpaceX is said to be valued at about $400 billion. Both have grown significantly this year.
xAI, valued at $75 billion in July, is building a supercomputer dubbed Colossus to train large-scale AI models, positioning its Grok chatbot as a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to dominate the global launch industry, operating the Starlink satellite network and holding the bulk of U.S. government launch contracts, the report said. The company regularly ferries astronauts to the International Space Station and deploys satellites for both allies and competitors.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison trails Musk as the second-richest person on Forbes’ list, with a net worth of about $350.7 billion.
