Desk Report:
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X, has become the first person in human history to own a fortune of half a trillion dollars. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker, the world’s richest person is now worth $500.1 billion.
Musk became the first person to own a fortune of $400 billion or more last December. He is now $150 billion ahead of second-place Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
The South African-born businessman’s wealth is largely based on his electric car company Tesla. Musk owns 12.4 percent of the company as of September 15. Tesla’s stock price has already risen more than 14 percent this year. On Wednesday alone, the share price rose about 4 percent, adding an estimated $9.3 billion to Musk’s wealth.
Tesla’s share price fluctuated at the beginning of the year, but has gradually risen since then. Investors’ confidence returned when Musk announced that he was stepping down as head of the US President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and refocusing on Tesla.
Last month, Tesla Chairman Robin Denholm said that Musk had returned to the company’s “front and center” position after spending several months in the White House. Shortly after, Musk said that he had bought Tesla shares for about $1 billion. This suggests that he is very confident in Tesla’s future, especially as the company aims to become a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics from a car manufacturer.
That same month, Tesla’s board proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk. It set ambitious financial and operational goals and also took into account Musk’s demand for larger share ownership.
But Tesla is not the only source of Musk’s half-trillion-dollar fortune. His artificial intelligence company XAI and space exploration company SpaceX have also seen their market values rise this year. According to PitchBook, XAI was valued at $75 billion in July. In September, CNBC reported that the company was planning to raise new money to reach a valuation of $200 billion. However, Musk said at the time that it was not raising new capital.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported in July that SpaceX was planning to raise new money and sell internal shares, which would value the company at about $400 billion.
According to Forbes, if Musk’s wealth continues at this rate, he will become the world’s first trillionaire by March 2033, when the first vesting date of his $1 trillion compensation package at Tesla will take effect.
