Elon Musk is the world’s richest man – what’s his net worth? | World | News

Elon Musk is the world’s richest person and his wealth shows no sign of slowing down as he is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.

The boss of X (formerly Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX net worth is estimated to be around £339 billion.

This is largely driven by his stakes in Tesla and ploughed his fortune into a new rocket company, SpaceX – which he aimed to make a cost-effective alternative to Nasa.

Tesla’s shares have increased nearly 70% in 2024, and have jumped since the US election.

Mr Musk, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, saw his net worth jump by 77% since Trump’s reelection as president in November, according to Bloomberg.

Wealth has always been a measure of influence and Musk is most certainly reaping the benefits of this as he was appointed as co-lead of President-elect Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, alongside former Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy.

In November the incoming President jubilantly claimed the pair “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

How did Elon Musk build his fortune?

Born in South Africa in 1971, the now tech tycoon exhibited a keen interest in technology and innovation from an early age, moving to the US at the age of 17 to attend college.

Zip2 Corporation was created in 1995 with Mr Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk at the helm.

Zip2 quickly topped the charts, providing content for both The New York Times and Chicago Tribune websites, in 1999 the brothers sold Zip2 £225million cash to a division of Compaq Computer Corporation.

In October 2002, at the age of 31, Mr Musk earned his first billion when the online financial services company he and Kimbal founded with the money from the Zip2 sale was acquired by eBay for £1.1billion.

Mr Musk founded one of his most noteworthy businesses SpaceX in 2002 and by 2008 the company was awarded a contract by NASA to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station, potentially replacing NASA’s own space shuttle missions in the future as well.

Mr Musk made history in 2012 when SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

In 2004, Musk joined Tesla Motors and became the company’s CEO four years later.

More recent business ventures include his takeover of social media platform Twitter in October 2022.