Elon Musk is edging closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire, according to Forbes.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief briefly became the first person in history to hit a net worth of $500 billion on Wednesday, October 1, before slipping back slightly.
The 54-year-old’s wealth peaked at $500.1 billion before dipping to $499.1 billion, Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires tracker reported. Musk’s fortune has surged on the back of a rebound in Tesla’s stock and steady growth in his other ventures, despite recent setbacks linked to his foray into politics.
He remains the world’s richest person, with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison ranked second at $350.7 billion, followed by Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg at $245.8 billion.
Musk’s rise has been decades in the making. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford, he sold his first company, an online publishing software firm, to Compaq for over $300 million in 1999. He then co-founded a venture that became PayPal before moving on to establish SpaceX in 2002. Two years later, he became chairman of Tesla, which has since grown into one of the world’s most valuable carmakers.
