Tech titan, Elon Musk has reclaimed the world’s richest man title and shattered records once again by becoming the first person to hit $500 billion net worth.
According to the latest Forbes Billionaires Index, the Tesla CEO’s fortune surged past the half-trillion-dollar mark on Wednesday
Forbes reported that Musk reclaimed the World’s richest man title after his empire witnessed stock prices rise.
The development was said to be propelled by soaring stock prices in his flagship companies amid renewed investor confidence in electric vehicles and space exploration.
Forbes reported: “This achievement not only cements Musk’s dominance in the billionaire echelons but also highlights the explosive growth of his empire, which now outpaces even tech titans like Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Musk’s rise to reclaim the World’s richest man title comes after a turbulent year marked by market volatility and political headwinds.
Musk, briefly lost his perch atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in September following a dramatic 33% spike in Oracle shares.
However, Forbes reported that Tesla’s stock, Musk’s largest asset, rallied 12% in the past week alone, driven by strong quarterly deliveries and hype around the upcoming Cybertruck expansion.
Also, SpaceX, valued at over $350 billion in private markets, contributed significantly through recent Starship test successes and lucrative NASA contracts.
Forbes reported that Musk’s fortune briefly hit $500 billion on Wednesday, before settling at $499.1 billion at 5 p.m. ET.
Musk last month disclosed his purchase of about $1 billion worth of Tesla shares, in what was seen as a vote of confidence as the company races to transition from an automaker to an AI and robotics powerhouse.
The carmaker’s board last month proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk, setting out lofty financial and operational targets for the CEO while also addressing his demands for a bigger stake in the company.
The package is the largest ever offered to a corporate executive and investors expect the pay plan to deepen Musk’s focus on Tesla at a time when he has juggled commitments across multiple ventures.
The stock has risen 35.7% since the package was disclosed on September 5.
His ventures, over the years, have given Musk an outsized sway over technology industries, from electric cars and clean energy to satellite communications and artificial intelligence.
Musk’s AI startup xAI and rocket company SpaceX have also scaled their valuations this year and are reportedly raising funds at $200 billion and $400 billion valuations, respectively.
The AI startup, valued at $75 billion in July, is expanding a supercomputer, dubbed “Colossus”, to train large-scale models as its Grok chatbot seeks to rival established players such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
SpaceX has cemented its dominance in the commercial space sector, operating the world’s largest satellite network through Starlink while capturing the bulk of U.S. launch contracts.
The company also consistently launches the most rockets in the world, regularly serving the International Space Station and carrying satellites for rival networks.
Recall that Musk, a tech titan and a former ally of United States President Donald Trump, lost his title as the world’s richest person to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Musk lost the world’s richest person title following a massive surge in Oracle’s stock price.
Ellison, an 81-year-old tech mogul had a net worth that was said to have skyrocketed by $101 billion in a single day, reaching $393 billion and surpassing Musk’s $385 billion, according to a report by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bloomberg reported that Ellison’s financial leap is the largest one-day gain ever recorded by the index.
Bloomberg also reported that Oracle’s shares had soared by 41% in early trading on Wednesday, a development that boosted Ellison’s fortune as the company’s largest individual shareholder with roughly 1.16 billion shares.
