Far ahead of world's second-richest: Elon Musk's fortune surges to $749 bn after court restores Tesla pay package

Elon Musk's net worth surged to $749 billion late on Friday after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Tesla stock options worth $139 billion that had been voided last year, Reuters reported, citing the Forbes Billionaires Index.

The ruling restores Musk's 2018 compensation package, once valued at $56 billion, which had been struck down by a lower court that described the deal as "unfathomable." On Friday, the Supreme Court said a 2024 decision rescinding the pay package had been improper and inequitable to Musk.

The decision capped a week of extraordinary gains for Musk. Earlier this week, he became the first person ever to cross $600 billion in net worth following reports that his aerospace venture SpaceX was likely to go public.

In November, Tesla shareholders separately approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk, the largest corporate compensation package in history, backing his push to transform the electric-vehicle maker into an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse.

Musk's fortune now exceeds that of Larry Page, the world's second-richest person, by nearly $500 billion, according to the Forbes billionaires list.