Elon Musk's net worth exceeds $400 billion — a historic first

By: Shawn
Elon Musk has become the first person to exceed $400 billion in net worth, marking the latest achievement for the world's wealthiest people.

The most recent cause was an insider share sale of his privately owned SpaceX, which increased Musk's net worth by around $50 billion in one fell swoop to $439.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks at an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa.
Samuel Corum via Getty Images

Musk's fortune has taken a drastic swing since late 2022, when his net worth dropped by more than $200 billion. But it's been notably boosted since Donald Trump's presidential victory last month, with Musk being his most visible political contributor and champion.

Tesla Inc.'s stock is up almost 65% since before the election, boosted by anticipation that Trump will speed up the launch of self-driving cars and abolish tax breaks for electric vehicles that benefit Tesla's competitors. Musk is expected to play an important role in the incoming government as co-head of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, giving him a bully pulpit in Washington and direct access to the Oval Office.

What's really astonishing is that nearly no investors wanted to sell shares, even at a $350 billion price!

SpaceX lowered the number of shares it purchased back from employees in order to allow new investors to participate.

Meanwhile, the valuation of his artificial intelligence business, xAI, has more than quadrupled since its previous funding round in May, to $50 billion, with the Wall Street Journal reporting last month that Trump's election fueled new interest. 

On Wednesday, SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy $1.25 billion in shares from employees and other business insiders. The purchase, which values the privately owned space exploration company at over $350 billion, makes SpaceX the world's most valuable private startup. 

The majority of the company's revenue comes from government contracts, and a Trump administration is expected to provide greater assistance. In campaign rallies, the president-elect praised Musk's ambition of sending astronauts to Mars and later attended a SpaceX launch in Texas. 

Jared Isaacman, Trump's nominee for NASA administrator, is a billionaire technology tycoon who performed the first commercial spacewalk on a chartered SpaceX mission in September. Last month, he described SpaceX as "the most innovative, literally impressive organization that I've ever seen" after investing $27.5 million in the business through his payments firm in 2021. 

Musk, 53, had terrible news this week when a Delaware judge rejected his 2018 Tesla compensation package, which is presently worth more than $100 billion, for the second time. Tesla announced that it will challenge the ruling, which Musk referred to as "absolute corruption" on X. Even if Musk's compensation award is eventually reversed, he will remain the world's richest person by far. FA 

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