At the beginning of 2020, Elon Musk's net worth stood at roughly $28 billion. Eight months later, as Tesla's stock price surged, his fortune had doubled to $57 billion. At the time, that was enough to make Musk the fourth-richest person on Earth. Today, a $57 billion net worth would barely crack the top 30.
By the end of 2020, Musk's wealth had climbed to $136 billion, allowing him to leapfrog Bill Gates and become the world's second-richest person, trailing only Jeff Bezos. That milestone turned out to be just the opening act. Over the next 12 months, Musk's net worth went parabolic. On November 4, 2021, his fortune hit $340 billion, surpassing the inflation-adjusted wealth of John D. Rockefeller and breaking a record that had stood for roughly 80 years.
What followed was volatility on a historic scale. By January 2023, Musk's net worth had fallen back to around $130 billion before rebounding sharply in late 2024 and early 2025. Along the way, Musk became the first human in history to see his fortune cross $300 billion, then $350 billion, $400 billion, $450 billion, and $500 billion. Now, thanks to a dramatic new valuation for SpaceX, he has crossed yet another unthinkable threshold. As I type this article, Elon Musk's net worth stands at approximately $640 billion, making him the first person ever to surpass $600 billion.
(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
$800 Billion SpaceX Valuation
SpaceX was already the most valuable private company in the world even before today's news, but its valuation just hit a stunning level.
Prior to today, the rocket and satellite company was valued at $400 billion. At that level, Elon Musk's roughly 43% ownership stake was worth about $172 billion on paper, even before applying any liquidity discounts typical of private companies.
Earlier today, it was revealed that SpaceX insiders sold shares at a valuation of roughly $800 billion, instantly resetting the paper benchmark for the company's worth.
The transaction cements SpaceX not only as the world's most valuable private company, but also as one of the most valuable companies of any kind, public or private. And we might just be getting started.
SpaceX is reportedly in the process of preparing for an IPO sometime in 2026. The target valuation at the IPO? $1.5 trillion. Let's say Elon experiences some dilution before. Let's say at the IPO, his stake is just 35%. At that level, his SpaceX shares would be worth $525 billion.
At today's $800 billion valuation, Musk's 43% SpaceX stake is worth $344 billion on paper. When combined with his $250 billion stake in Tesla, $35 billion stake in xAI, and various other ventures, Elon's net worth now sits at $640 billion.
Elon is BY FAR the richest person in human history and the richest person in the world. He is $375 billion richer than Larry Page, the second-richest person on earth, with a net worth of $265 billion.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Next Up, World's First Trillionaire?
I have to be honest. Seeing "$640 billion" next to Elon's name on his CelebrityNetWorth profile page almost looks fake. How can that really be a single human being's personal fortune? And yet, here we are. Based on the trajectory of his fortune, it is no longer unreasonable to think Musk could become the world's first trillionaire. In a separate analysis, we laid out a very realistic path showing Elon could become a trillionaire without requiring anything truly absurd to happen.
To put the scale of this moment in perspective, when I launched CelebrityNetWorth in 2008, the richest person in the world was Warren Buffett. At the time, Buffett's world-leading fortune was about $62 billion. Seventeen years later, Elon Musk's net worth is more than ten times larger than that figure.
Which raises an uncomfortable but fascinating question. If this is what the top of the wealth pyramid looks like today, what will it look like 17 years from now? By the end of 2042, will the richest person on Earth be a 71-year-old Elon Musk with a fortune measured in multiple trillions? Or will it be someone we haven't even heard of yet, sitting atop an even more unreal-sounding number?
One thing feels increasingly clear. The era of the trillionaire no longer sounds theoretical. It sounds inevitable.
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