In the beginning of 2020, Elon Musk’s internet value stood at roughly $28 billion. Eight months later, as Tesla’s inventory value surged, his fortune had doubled to $57 billion. On the time, that was sufficient to make Musk the fourth-richest individual on Earth. Right now, a $57 billion internet value would barely crack the highest 30.
By the top of 2020, Musk’s wealth had climbed to $136 billion, permitting him to leapfrog Invoice Gates and turn out to be the world’s second-richest individual, trailing solely Jeff Bezos. That milestone turned out to be simply the opening act. Over the following 12 months, Musk’s internet value went parabolic. On November 4, 2021, his fortune hit $340 billion, surpassing the inflation-adjusted wealth of John D. Rockefeller and breaking a report that had stood for roughly 80 years.
What adopted was volatility on a historic scale. By January 2023, Musk’s internet value had fallen again to round $130 billion earlier than rebounding sharply in late 2024 and early 2025. Alongside the way in which, Musk turned the primary human in historical past to see his fortune cross $300 billion, then $350 billion, $400 billion, $450 billion, and $500 billion. Now, because of a dramatic new valuation for SpaceX, he has crossed one more unthinkable threshold. As I kind this text, Elon Musk’s internet value stands at roughly $640 billion, making him the primary individual ever to surpass $600 billion.
(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Photographs)
$800 Billion SpaceX Valuation
SpaceX was already probably the most invaluable personal firm on the planet even earlier than right now’s information, however its valuation simply hit a surprising stage.
Previous to right now, the rocket and satellite tv for pc firm was valued at $400 billion. At that stage, Elon Musk’s roughly 43% possession stake was value about $172 billion on paper, even earlier than making use of any liquidity reductions typical of personal corporations.
Earlier right now, it was revealed that SpaceX insiders offered shares at a valuation of roughly $800 billion, immediately resetting the paper benchmark for the corporate’s value.
The transaction cements SpaceX not solely because the world’s most useful personal firm, but in addition as some of the invaluable corporations of any sort, public or personal. And we’d simply be getting began.
SpaceX is reportedly within the means of making ready for an IPO someday in 2026. The goal valuation on the IPO? $1.5 trillion. To illustrate Elon experiences some dilution earlier than. To illustrate on the IPO, his stake is simply 35%. At that stage, his SpaceX shares could be value $525 billion.
At right now’s $800 billion valuation, Musk’s 43% SpaceX stake is value $344 billion on paper. When mixed along with his $250 billion stake in Tesla, $35 billion stake in xAI, and numerous different ventures, Elon’s internet value now sits at $640 billion.
Elon is BY FAR the richest individual in human historical past and the richest individual on the planet. He’s $375 billion richer than Larry Web page, the second-richest individual on earth, with a internet value of $265 billion.
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Subsequent Up, World’s First Trillionaire?
I’ve to be trustworthy. Seeing “$640 billion” subsequent to Elon’s identify on his CelebrityNetWorth profile web page nearly seems to be pretend. How can that basically be a single human being’s private fortune? And but, right here we’re. Primarily based on the trajectory of his fortune, it’s not unreasonable to assume Musk may turn out to be the world’s first trillionaire. In a separate evaluation, we laid out a really real looking path exhibiting Elon may turn out to be a trillionaire with out requiring something really absurd to occur.
To place the size of this second in perspective, after I launched CelebrityNetWorth in 2008, the richest individual on the planet was Warren Buffett. On the time, Buffett’s world-leading fortune was about $62 billion. Seventeen years later, Elon Musk’s internet value is greater than ten occasions bigger than that determine.
Which raises an uncomfortable however fascinating query. If that is what the highest of the wealth pyramid seems to be like right now, what’s going to it appear to be 17 years from now? By the top of 2042, will the richest individual on Earth be a 71-year-old Elon Musk with a fortune measured in a number of trillions? Or will or not it’s somebody we’ve not even heard of but, sitting atop an much more unreal-sounding quantity?
One factor feels more and more clear. The period of the trillionaire not sounds theoretical. It sounds inevitable.