Today's Edition
NEW YORK (dpa)
Elon Musk has become the first person estimated to reach a net worth of $500 billion, according to US magazine Forbes, largely held in shares of electric carmaker Tesla and aerospace firm SpaceX.
Forbes calculated Musk's wealth at roughly $150 billion more than Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The magazine later revised the estimate slightly down to $499.1 billion.
Musk's wealth is harder to estimate than that of other billionaires because many of his companies are not publicly traded.
Musk surpassed the $400 billion mark in December 2024. Since then, Tesla sales softened and then rebounded, bolstered by expectations for growth in robotaxis and robotics, and possibly by a spike in sales ahead of the expiration of federal electric vehicle incentives in late September.
Musk's portfolio also includes social media platform X, AI developer xAI and neural implant company Neuralink. Tesla, however, remains central to his fortune.
The electric carmaker is offering a compensation plan potentially worth $1 trillion, contingent on achieving eightfold market value growth, maintaining Musk as chief executive and fulfilling other performance conditions.
