The World’s Richest Person

Today on Forbes, the world's richest person. No one has ever had a tighter grasp on the title of world's richest person than Elon Musk does right now. Since retaking the top spot on Forbes' annual world's billionaires list from French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault of LVMH last year, Musk spent the past 12 months padding his stats. He got 497 billion dollars richer. The most wealth ever gained in a single year and is now worth an estimated 839 billion dollars. That makes him more than three times richer than the second wealthiest person on the planet, Google co-founder Larry Page, who is worth an estimated 257 billion dollars. Musk is now closer to becoming a trillionaire than giving up the number one spot. It was a year of major milestones for Musk, who became the first person ever worth 500 billion dollars in October, after he announced his resignation as head of President Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, to spend more time on Tesla in April, helping send shares of the electric vehicle maker soaring by nearly 100 percent over the next five months. Then, on December 15th, he crossed the 600 billion dollar mark, after his privately held rocket maker SpaceX launched a tender offer valuing the company at 800 billion dollars, up from 400 billion dollars in August. Four days later, he became the first person ever worth 700 billion dollars, after the Delaware Supreme Court restored Tesla stock options currently worth 115 billion dollars to Musk that had been voided by a lower court in 2024. Finally, in February, he crossed the 800 billion dollar mark, after SpaceX acquired Musk's XAI in a deal that boosted the valuation of the combined company to 1.25 trillion dollars. The merger valued XAI at 250 billion dollars, up from 113 billion dollars Musk claimed when he merged his AI startup with his social media company X, formerly Twitter, last March. The February deal made Musk's estimated 43 percent stake in SpaceX his most valuable asset by far, worth an estimated 542 billion dollars. It also helped make his younger brother Kimball Musk, whose estimated net worth is 1.4 billion dollars, and early SpaceX employee Tom Muller, worth 1.3 billion dollars, newcomers to this year's world's billionaires list, thanks in large part to their small stakes in the rocket-making giant. Kimball Musk is also a director and shareholder of Tesla, while Muller is the founder and CEO of Impulse Space, which private investors valued at 1.8 billion dollars in June. Elon Musk's 12 percent stake in Tesla, excluding options, meanwhile, is worth 166 billion dollars. That doesn't include the record-breaking pay package Tesla shareholders approved in November that could give Musk up to 1 trillion dollars in additional stock before taxes and the cost of unlocking the restricted shares if Tesla achieves so-called Mars-shot performance milestones, like growing its market cap more than eightfold over the next 10 years. But it seems likely that SpaceX will make Musk a trillionaire long before any of those Tesla shares vest. Musk's rocket maker is reportedly planning to go public later this year in an IPO that could boost the company's valuation by another 40 percent, to 1.75 trillion dollars. Musk seemed to confirm those plans in March in his unique social media style, replying simply, quote, yes, to a follower's ex-post about the valuation, which would almost certainly add a fourth comma to Musk's fortune. How things have changed over the past four years It wasn't long ago that Musk overtook Amazon's Jeff Bezos to rank number one on Forbes' annual world's billionaires list for the first time ever, in 2022, with an estimated 219 billion dollar fortune. Musk's reign didn't last long back then. He dropped to number two behind LVMH's Arnaud on both our 2023 and 2024 rankings. Even last year, when Musk reclaimed the top spot with an estimated 342 billion dollar fortune, he was still only 126 billion dollars richer than his runner up at the time, Mark Zuckerberg. Now, Musk is truly in a league of his own, and the prospect of him ever being overtaken again as the world's richest person seems increasingly less likely. For full coverage and to see the whole 2026 world's billionaires list, which was just released on Tuesday, check out Matt Durow's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.