Elon Musk has become the world’s first half-trillionaire, Forbes magazine reported on Wednesday.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s net worth hit $US500.1 billion ($755 billion) on Wednesday, before dipping back to $US499.1 billion, the publication’s “Real-Time Billionaires” tracker reported.
Mr Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time four years ago, but briefly lost his title this September to Larry Ellison, the co-founder of information technology company Oracle.
Mr Ellison’s wealth surged to $US393 billion ($593 billion), surpassing Mr Musk’s $US385 billion at the time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The jump came after shares in Oracle soared more than 40 per cent following billion-dollar AI deals made with companies such as OpenAI, Meta and Nvidia.
Mr Musk has again overtaken Mr Ellison, whose net worth is now $US350.7 billion.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford University, Mr Musk banked his first millions when he sold an online publishing software company, Zip2, to US computer-maker Compaq for more than $US300 million ($450 million) in 1999.
His next company was an online bank that eventually merged with PayPal.
After leaving that venture, the South African-born tech entrepreneur founded the space rocket company, SpaceX, in 2002 and became the CEO of Tesla in 2008.
But Who Is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk was born to a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, and emigrated to Canada in 1989; he had obtained Canadian citizenship at birth through his Canadian-born mother.
He received bachelor’s degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States, before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2.
Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. That year, Musk also became an American citizen.
In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer; the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight.
Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008; it has since become a leader in electric vehicles.
In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left, growing discontent with the organization’s direction and their leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI.
In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes, and rebranding it as X in 2023.
His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017.
Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and is a supporter of global far-right figures, causes, and political parties.
In early 2025, he served as senior advisor to United States president Donald Trump and as the de facto head of DOGE. After a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration and returned to his technology companies.
Musk’s political activities, views, and statements have made him a polarizing figure, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading state
