WASHINGTON – Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is edging closer to becoming the planet’s first trillionaire after his fortune briefly crossed the $500 billion mark, according to Forbes.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive hit a record net worth of $500.1 billion on Wednesday, before it slipped back to $499.1 billion as tracked by the publication’s Real-Time Billionaires index.
The rebound comes after a recent surge in Tesla’s share price, which had earlier dipped during what analysts described as Musk’s “clumsy foray into politics.”
Musk, 54, is now nearly halfway to the trillion-dollar milestone—a once-unthinkable benchmark in personal wealth.
Trailing him on the billionaires list is Oracle founder Larry Ellison, whose net worth stands at $350.7 billion, followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $245.8 billion.
Musk’s extraordinary rise has been built on decades of bold bets in tech and space exploration.
After studying at the University of Pennsylvania and briefly enrolling at Stanford University, he made his first millions in 1999 when Compaq acquired his online publishing software company for more than $300 million.
He went on to co-found a venture that later merged with PayPal, and in 2002 launched the space exploration company SpaceX. Two years later, he joined Tesla as chairman, guiding it into a global leader in the electric vehicle market.
If Tesla’s stock momentum and SpaceX’s valuation continue on their current trajectory, analysts say Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire within the next decade.
