Known across the world for his controversial, yet undeniably brilliant personality, Elon Musk is a force of nature. Most famously known as the world’s richest man, Elon has consistently redefined himself and what it means to be a business mogul. A man of many firsts, Elon has pioneered multiple achievements across numerous fields.
The visionary billionaire has consistently defied the odds, proving that impossible truly is nothing. Whether it’s building and launching reusable rockets into space or pioneering self-driving electric vehicles, Musk leads several of the most innovative and successful companies in the world.
The success of all these companies has earned him his wealth and status as the world’s richest person. But how much does he actually have? To answer that, in this article, Kate Richardson examines his empire and all the ventures that have helped the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur build his fortune.
Early Life and Sources of Wealth of Elon Musk
Elon Musk was actually born in South Africa to a South African father and a Canadian-born mother. He moved to Canada in 1989 and studied for a few years before eventually moving to the US in 1992, where he studied at the University of Pennsylvania.
After a couple of internships in Silicon Valley, Elon would partner with a few friends. Musk co-founded Zip2, a financial technology software company. It was eventually sold to Compaq for $307 million, for which Musk personally received a pay package worth $22 million. In 1999, Musk founded another company that would become PayPal in the future.
This sale would be the tipping point in Elon’s life, and would launch him into his journey of founding several high-stakes companies across multiple companies across diverse industries, from transportation and finance, to energy and artificial intelligence.
Each of these contributed in no small measure to Elon Musk’s wealth. More recently, Elon Musk heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), after being appointed by Trump to cut down on frivolous government contracts. Here’s a summary of businesses that Musk created or currently manages:
- SpaceX
- Tesla
- X (formerly Twitter)
- Neuralink
- The Boring Company
- xAI
- Zip2 Corporation
- com (now PayPal
- OpenAI
All that said, let’s take a closer look at each of them and how they helped Elon Musk become one of the richest people in history, edging close competitors like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Tesla
Tesla is the crown jewel of Musk’s empire and one of the world’s biggest electric car companies. Musk didn’t actually found Tesla, but joined it in 2004, and eventually took over and became the CEO and face of the company.
Tesla was initially undermined and even mocked by other automobile manufacturers, investors, and the general public. But today, it dominates the Electric Vehicle market. With its market cap surpassing $1 trillion multiple times, the EV giant has in no small way contributed to making Elon Musk the world’s wealthiest billionaire.
As of 2025, Elon is estimated to currently own about 12.8% of Tesla stock. His stakes in Tesla are valued at around $127 billion after Tesla’s stock price reached around $300.
And although the company’s share price has gone down a few times, this stake in the company still forms the bulk of his net worth. Tesla, as a manufacturer, is not just limited to automobile manufacturing. It also has investments in autonomous driving, battery tech, and solar energy.
SpaceX
SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 and is the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX is also quite notable for being on the frontier of reusable rocket technology. In addition to that, SpaceX is also behind Starlink, an internet service that aims to provide high-speed internet to all parts of the globe, particularly in low-income areas.
As of December 2024, SpaceX was valued at $350 billion, making it one of the most valuable venture-backed companies on the planet. This, of course, is another powerful addition to his portfolio and contributes tens of billions of dollars to Elon’s net worth. SpaceX also represents Musk’s attempt to rival NASA and take humanity to Mars before anyone else.
X (Twitter)
X (previously known as Twitter) is Elon Musk’s most notable and controversial acquisition. After purchasing Twitter from Jack Dorsey in 2022 for an estimated 44 billion USD, he took the company private, rebranded it as “X” and began to aggressively chase his vision of turning X into an everything app.
Meaning that the app’s offerings would not just be limited to social media, but also payment processing, data search, artificial intelligence, and most recently, a part betting platform.
In a rather surprising turn of events, Elon recently launched a deal with sports betting company BetMGM to display some of its betting odds on X. This is a fantastic initiative, especially considering how gambling options are limited in certain countries where the social media platform operates in.
For instance, when I was looking for betting options in Qatar, the regulatory landscape was rather restrictive and one could barely get access to top betting sites. Thankfully, with some of the best offshore sportsbooks available on MightyTips, players in Qatar and countries with similar restrictions can .
While the current valuation of Musk’s X is unclear, there is no indication that the billionaire bought the app for personal gain.
He is credited with saying, “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”
Musk showed this intention by using the app to air his opinion, including supporting Trump’s re-election bid in 2024.
xAI
Built to rival OpenAI, xAI represents Elon’s play in the artificial intelligence industry. It was founded in 2023, and was built to counter what were in Musk’s opinion ethical approaches which characterised existing mainstream AI models. And while the company is still fairly young, the company has enormous potential. With a lot of AI experts and investors betting big on the company’s impact and future size.
The Boring Company
This rather oddly named company has an equally quirky goal: to transform transport by digging, or boring high-speed tunnels for high-speed travel. This interesting idea was borne from Elon’s frustrations with Los Angeles traffic on the 17th of December 2016. And what would have ended as a simple Twitter rant about traffic for anyone else led to the creation of a multi-billion-dollar cash idea for Elon Musk.
Neuralink
The most bleeding-edge of stones in Elon Musk’s infinity gauntlet of a portfolio, Neuralink, aims to create devices that can serve as interfaces between computers and the human brain. While the technology is still largely experimental, if it works, the potential applications could be revolutionary.
The True Fortune of the Richest Person in the World and Why His Net Worth Fluctuates
So, how much is Elon actually worth?
Well, as of the time this article is being written, Elon Musk’s net worth stands at around $415.7 billion, making him the richest person in the world. His nearest competitor, Jeff Bezos, is still over $100 billion away from him, which proves just how much wealth Musk owns even when compared with other billionaires. Although it is worth noting that most of this is actually in the form of equity.
This means that Elon doesn’t receive a salary like ordinary staff of the companies do. Meaning that his net worth is dependent on how well the stock of his companies performs on the market. A surge in the stock can see his net worth soaring suddenly, while a market downturn can cause him to lose billions overnight.
Final Thoughts on How Much Does Elon Musk Have Money
Elon Musk isn’t just a businessman, he is a visionary, a pioneer, and an explorer. And with the explanation of each of his ventures, he doesn’t just expand his fortune, but pushes the boundaries of what was thought possible for mankind, serving as an inspiration for us all. Now that you know how Elon Musk makes money, don’t just focus on what his 400 billion dollar fortune translates into.
Instead, you can consider emulating abilities.
As former baseball player Brandon Webb once said, “Elon Musk should be at the top of the list of people to emulate when it comes to leading large organizations that are highly maneuverable and use it as a competitive advantage.”
The article was provided by Kate Richardson
