Elon Musk's estimated net worth has now surpassed $400 billion, according to an estimate from Bloomberg News — making him the first person ever to reach such a milestone.
While the value of shares in Musk's Tesla electric car company and robotics group have soared in recent months, it is his privately held stake in SpaceX, the rocket company he helped found, that has catapulted his wealth beyond the latest threshold.
This week, Bloomberg reported that a private sale of SpaceX shares increased the market cap of the firm to about $350 billion, making it the most valuable private startup in the world. Musk is said to own 42% of the firm.
As Tesla shares hit a new high Wednesday, Musk's wealth leaped to $440 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Musk's position as the world's wealthiest person has experienced some volatility in recent years amid turbulence in Tesla's share price, but he has most recently held the No. 1 slot since May. A separate billionaire index tracked by Forbes pegs Musk's net worth at about $369 billion, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at No. 2 and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at No. 3.
A Delaware judge this month reaffirmed an earlier ruling that rejected a pay package for Musk that Tesla shareholders had already approved, citing a conflict of interest in their vote.
Yet Musk's net worth has climbed even without that compensation deal, which is now worth $100 billion. Musk expressed his disagreement with Judge Kathleen McCormick's ruling on the compensation arrangement, stating on his X social media platform: “Shareholders should control company votes, not judges."
Musk spent much of the year focused on the 2024 election: Federal Election Commission filings show he spent nearly a quarter of $1 billion on helping elect Donald Trump to a second term as president.
