New York (AFP) – Elon Musk’s estimated $839 billion net worth has made him the wealthiest individual ever recorded, Forbes said Tuesday, as billionaires worldwide saw their combined fortunes surge in the past year to an all-time high of $20.1 trillion. Musk topped the Forbes World’s Billionaires list for the second consecutive year after his fortune swelled by roughly $500 billion over the past twelve months, driven by rising valuations at Tesla and SpaceX, which is targeting a public offering in 2026. He is the first person ever to surpass the $800 billion mark and is on course to become the world’s first trillionaire.
Musk’s monumental jump in wealth reflects a rollercoaster 2025 for Tesla that saw the electric vehicle maker’s stock price tumble through the spring amid consumer boycotts over the billionaire’s backing of Donald Trump and other far-right politicians. But Tesla shares rebounded in the second half of 2025 after Musk exited his Trump administration role and have remained lofty. The Forbes list is based on valuations as of March 1, 2026. Tesla champions believe the company is poised for stratospheric growth because of Musk’s access to cutting-edge technology in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.
While Musk remains a polarizing figure with the general public, Tesla shareholders have consistently backed the billionaire. In a November vote, shareholders endorsed a pay package worth up to $1 trillion if Tesla meets production and valuation targets, lifting Musk’s share of the company to about 25 percent. Musk had suggested he could exit Tesla absent the package, saying ahead of the vote that he wanted a large enough stake to have a “strong influence” over the company as he builds a “robot army.” Musk has said that less than 0.1 percent of his wealth is in cash.
David Kirsch at the University of Maryland said estimates of Musk’s wealth are inevitably “highly speculative” because a large share depends on equity assets whose valuations depend on whether anticipated growth pans out. “If you were to measure the actual assets, it wouldn’t be $800 bn. It might be a third of that, which would still be more than the next person,” said Kirsch, who characterized Musk’s fortune as “staggering” and “kind of unreal.”
Musk’s fortune amounts to more than three times that of the next names on Forbes’ billionaire list, which has grown to a record 3,428 individuals and is heavily populated at the top by other tech titans. The co-founders of Google, Larry Page ($257 billion) and Sergey Brin ($237 billion), ranked second and third. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ranked fourth with $224 billion, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was fifth at $222 billion. The current list has around 400 more billionaires than the 2025 Forbes compilation, a bounty propelled by a stock market surge due partly to bullishness about AI.
Trump moved up to 645th place from 700 a year ago. Forbes estimated Trump’s fortune at $6.5 billion, up $1.4 billion. Major drivers of the US president’s rising wealth include hundreds of millions in wealth tied to cryptocurrencies he has promoted. Trump also benefited after a New York appeals court threw out a civil penalty of $518 million in a fraud case. “Donald Trump’s second term as president has so far paid off handsomely for the billionaire head of state,” Forbes said. “Whether striking deals in the Middle East, shilling his crypto coins or hosting luminaries at his properties, Trump has proven that he and his family are very much still in business.”
© 2024 AFP
