Elon Musk‘s influence extended far beyond the subsequent technological world Donald Trumpelection victory in 2024. After becoming one of Trump’s most prominent supporters during the campaign, Musk was tapped to help oversee the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) along with Vivek Ramaswamywith the administration promising sweeping cuts in federal spending and regulations. Musk later announced in May 2025 that his role in the administration had officially ended, although his political involvement and public statements continued to attract attention.
At the same time, Musk’s business empire continued to grow. Tesla remained one of the world’s most valuable automakers, while SpaceX reached new heights with the continued expansion of Starlink and its historic IPO in June 2026. The massive public offering briefly valued SpaceX at more than $2 trillion and helped make Musk the world’s first billionaire. Meanwhile, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has become an increasingly large part of his fortune as competition in the AI industry intensifies.
Despite fluctuations in the billionaire rankings, Musk remains the richest person in the world by a wide margin. Find out who else is among the richest people on the planet today.
What is Elon Musk’s net worth?
Musk currently has an estimated net worth of $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes Real Time Billionaires List. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO will remain the richest person in the world in 2026, with much of his fortune tied to his shares in Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X and other ventures.
Musk first surpassed $400 billion in December 2024, becoming the first person in history to reach this milestone.
What is Larry Ellison’s net worth?
Ellison has a net worth of about $229.3 billion, according to Forbes. Most of his wealth comes from his longtime stake in Oracle, where he still serves as chairman and chief technology officer.
Ellison’s wealth soared in 2025 during the artificial intelligence boom, when Oracle stock soared following major AI-related business deals and growth in cloud computing. In September 2025, he briefly became the second person ever to surpass a net worth of $400 billion, temporarily overtaking Musk as the world’s richest person before Musk reclaimed the top spot.
Who are the richest people in the world?
Today, according to Bloomberg, the richest people in the world are Forbes and several other businesses are:
- Elon Musk – 1.1 trillion dollars
- Larry Page – $295.1 billion
- Sergey Brin – $272.2 billion
- Jeff Bezos – $246.7 billion
- Larry Ellison – $229.3 billion
How did Musk make his money?
A significant portion of Musk’s net worth comes from his 12 percent stake in Tesla, which represents approximately 412 million shares. He has pledged 58 percent of his Tesla shares as collateral for personal loans totaling $3.5 billion. In 2022, Musk sold $40 billion worth of Tesla stock to help finance his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which he later renamed X. Although Musk still owns about 79 percent of the company at its original valuation, Twitter’s value has fallen by nearly 70 percent as of August 2024.
Musk also co-founded SpaceX and The Boring Company and serves as chairman of SolarCity. He owns 43 percent of SpaceX, which was valued at $180 billion in its most recent funding round and was estimated to be worth $350 billion by December 2024. The Boring Company, on the other hand, was valued at about $5 billion in its most recent round.
In addition, Musk owns about 54 percent of xAI, the artificial intelligence company he founded in 2023. The startup was valued at $50 billion in November 2024, according to The Wall Street Journal.
