Billionaire tech visionary Elon Musk is inching toward a historic milestone: becoming the world’s first trillionaire, according to Forbes.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief briefly crossed the $500 billion net worth mark on Wednesday, making him the only individual ever to hit that halfway point on the trillionaire ladder. His wealth surged as Tesla shares bounced back strongly after recent setbacks, alongside gains from his other ventures.
Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires tracker reported Musk’s fortune at $500.1 billion before it settled back slightly to $499.1 billion.
Musk, 54, currently holds the crown as the world’s richest person. He is trailed by Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($350.7 billion) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ($245.8 billion).
The South African-born entrepreneur’s journey began after his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a brief stint at Stanford. He made his first millions selling a software company to Compaq in 1999, later co-founding what became PayPal.
In 2002, he launched SpaceX, and two years later took the reins at Tesla, building the foundations of an empire that might soon crown him as humanity’s first trillionaire.
