Elon Musk’s fortune is estimated at $439.2 billion.For comparison, the world’s next richest living people are Jeff Bezos, whose fortune is estimated at $244 billion, Meta Mark Zuckerberg with a net worth of $219 billion and Larry Ellisonwhose fortune – according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index – is worth $197 billion.
SpaceX
The latest boost to Musk’s wealth was selling shares of his private company SpaceX by insiders, which increased his net worth by about $50 billion to $350 billion, and in one fell swoop, increasing his personal wealth to $439.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
SpaceX, a space exploration company, has become the most valuable private startup in the world.
The company makes most of its money from contracts with the U.S. government and could likely count on more support from the Trump administration. The president-elect praised Musk’s vision of sending astronauts to Mars in campaign speeches and joined Musk at a SpaceX launch in Texas shortly after the election.
Tesla stock rally
In addition to SpaceX, Musk is also the CEO and holder of a significant stake in Tesla, which has added significantly to Musk’s swelling portfolio.
During the election, Musk became the most prominent political donor and an advocate of Donald Trump, currently the US president-elect. Since the election Tesla’s share price increased by about 65 percent, which is driven by expectations that Trump will speed up the rollout of autonomous cars and eliminate tax breaks for electric vehicles that will help Tesla’s competitors.
Musk is expected to take on a key role in the new administration as co-head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which will give him a position in Washington and a direct line to the Oval Office.
xAI and other Musk companies
The value of his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has more than doubled since its last fundraising in May to $50 billion, and the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Trump’s victory helped generate new interest.
His other companies include brain chip company Neuralink, tunneling company The Boring Company and X. Corp., the successor to Twitter.
