Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday, following the record-breaking stock market debut of his company SpaceX.
Few business leaders have been as deeply embedded in popular culture as Elon Musk, the ambitious entrepreneur who has become a central figure in internet culture and amassed a fortune that has made him the world’s first trillionaire.
At a time when concerns about inequality are high and public attitudes toward the ultra-wealthy have soured, opens new tab, Musk has managed to retain a loyal following despite his stratospheric net worth and without the folksy persona that endeared other tycoons such as Warren Buffett to the masses.
With a current estimated net worth of about $1.11tn, according to Bloomberg, Musk sits well above wealthy billionaires topping rich lists, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and boss of French luxury goods group LVMH, Bernard Arnault.
Musk – who first made waves in the tech industry in the late 1990s – hasn’t always topped the rich list, though.
In January 2020, he was only the 35th richest person in the world, with a fortune of around $28bn.
But his wealth took off that year as the value of his two biggest companies – electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration and AI firm SpaceX – began to grow sharply. Musk holds large stakes in both businesses.
The long-scroll chart below traces this volatile journey over the last six years. His wealth trajectory mimics a jagged mountain range, with dramatic surges and steep declines driven by swings in Tesla’s share price, the rising value of SpaceX, and shifts in political and investor sentiment during his time in the Trump administration.
By January 2021, the tech mogul had risen to become the world’s richest person, briefly overtaking Jeff Bezos.
But his fortune dipped in 2022 amid a downturn in US tech stocks, and fell sharply again in early 2025, as investor concerns over his role in the Trump administration coincided with a slump in Tesla’s share price.
Each time, he has come back stronger. Now a trillionaire, Musk is almost four times richer than his nearest rival Larry Page, and more than five times richer than Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg.
But what does a thousand billion dollars (that’s a one followed by 12 zeros) actually look like? The chart below breaks this unimaginable sum down, dot by dot, comparing his total wealth to other high-profile figures, government spending budgets and luxury assets.
It’s important to remember that Musk’s wealth is mainly made up of stock holdings that can rise or fall depending on investor sentiment. Indeed in February, the tech mogul said on X that less than “0.1%” of his net worth was held in cash.
Musk currently owns a 12% stake in Tesla, a company with a market valuation of around $1.5tn, and a 42% stake in SpaceX, which is now worth more than $2tn. Many of his shares have been pledged as collateral against personal loans.
The tech boss also owns stakes in smaller businesses, including The Boring Company, a tunnel construction firm, and Neuralink, which develops implantable brain-computer interfaces.
This extreme reliance on paper assets rather than liquid cash creates a striking imbalance. As the breakdown below illustrates, the horizontal block of his wealth is almost entirely consumed by two massive corporate holdings, leaving virtually no room for actual cash.
Historically, the world’s wealthiest individuals earned fortunes in sectors like finance and manufacturing. Today, the global rich list tells a completely different story.
Look at the grid below: the expanding blue blocks show how completely tech titans have monopolised the top spots over the last decade.
Back in 2015, only two of the world’s top 10 richest people were from the tech world. Now that number is seven, including the entire top six.
BBC
