Elon Musk close to world’s first trillionaire status as net worth soars to $849 billion

Elon Musk is edging closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire, with rockets and artificial intelligence now driving his wealth more than cars. The Tesla CEO’s net worth has surged to around $849 billion, according to Forbes, fuelled largely by SpaceX, which now accounts for nearly two-thirds of his fortune.

To put this in perspective, Musk is now wealthier than the next three richest people combined: Google co-founders Larry Page ($251 billion) and Sergey Brin ($231.7 billion), and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($219.4 billion).

According to CNBC, the surge in Musk’s wealth follows SpaceX’s acquisition of his AI and social media venture, xAI, in a deal that values the merged entity at $1.25 trillion. With an estimated 43% stake, Musk’s share alone is worth more than $530 billion, marking a major shift away from his previously Tesla-dominated fortune.

Tesla has acknowledged this change. Its latest proxy filing states that “a majority of Mr. Musk’s wealth is now derived from other business ventures,” signalling that SpaceX has become the primary engine of his wealth.

Musk has also confirmed plans to take SpaceX public in 2026, a move that would further reduce Tesla’s share of his liquid wealth. Investors, however, may be cautious when valuing a company that combines a defence contractor, a satellite business, and a cash-burning AI developer competing with Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

SpaceX has already secured more than $20 billion in US federal government contracts, with more expected, according to research firm FedScout. Musk has framed the xAI acquisition as a step towards building “orbital data centres.”

xAI is currently under investigation in Europe, Asia, Australia and California after its Grok image generator allegedly allowed users to create and share deepfake explicit images of children and women.

Despite the shift towards rockets, Musk continues to have significant incentives tied to Tesla. Shareholders approved a pay package last year potentially worth up to $1 trillion, distributed across 12 tranches if Tesla meets market capitalisation and operational milestones. The first tranche becomes payable if Tesla reaches a $2 trillion market cap—around $460 billion above its current valuation.

Before the xAI acquisition, Musk owned about 42% of SpaceX and controlled 80% of the voting power. His Tesla stake now stands between 11% and 15% of shares outstanding. Tesla’s stock is down about 9% so far this year, with robotaxis and humanoid robots still under development.

Based on Musk’s SpaceX stake, and assuming Tesla shares remain flat, the merged rocket and AI company would need to reach a valuation of roughly $1.6 trillion for Musk to officially attain trillionaire status.