Elon Musk’s wealth pulls away from rivals as fortune reaches historic trillion-dollar mark
- +A new era of billionaire wealth
- +How Elon Musk’s wealth has grown in 2026
- +Musk’s wealth differs from that of other billionaires
Elon Musk has widened his lead at the top of the global billionaire rankings, placing a historic distance between his fortune and the world’s second and third richest individuals.
Elon Musk has widened his lead at the top of the global billionaire rankings, placing a historic distance between his fortune and the world’s second and third richest individuals.
Musk is worth about 3.4 times more than Larry Page and worth about 3.6 times more than Sergey Brin, Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker reveals.
The gap means Musk’s personal fortune is now larger than the combined wealth of many major technology billionaires, highlighting the growing influence of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, space technology, and advanced engineering businesses in creating modern wealth.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is worth of $1.1 trillion as of June 13, 2026. He became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12 when SpaceX went public.
SpaceX opened its first day of trading as a public company at a valuation of nearly $2 trillion. Musk owns 38 percent of the company (including options), Forbes stated.
Larry Page, the second billionaire in the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker, is the co-founder and board member of Alphabet, who stood at $294.1 billion real-time net worth as of June 13, 2026.
Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in 2019 but remains a board member and a controlling shareholder. He cofounded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford Ph.D. student Sergey Brin.
Sergey Brin, cofounder and board member of Alphabet, was the third billionaire in the world, stood at $271.3 billion in real-time net worth as of June 13, 2026.
Sergey Brin stepped down as president of Alphabet, parent company of Google, in 2019, but remains a board member and a controlling shareholder. He cofounded Google with Larry Page in 1998 after the two met at Stanford University while studying for advanced degrees in computer science.
Following the surge in the valuation of SpaceX and strong performance across his technology ventures, Musk’s estimated fortune has climbed to about $1.1 trillion, making him the first person in history to cross the trillion-dollar wealth milestone.
A new era of billionaire wealth
Musk’s rise has changed the scale of billionaire rankings because, for years, the world’s richest individuals competed within a range of around $100 billion to $300 billion.
However, Musk’s jump toward and beyond the trillion-dollar mark represents a new chapter in global wealth creation.
The distance between Musk and the next richest people is now larger than the entire fortunes of many of the world’s wealthiest individuals combined, highlighting the growing influence of technology, artificial intelligence, and space industries in creating extreme wealth.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the world’s 500 richest people and updates billionaire fortunes daily based on market movements, has consistently ranked Musk at the top.
Before the latest SpaceX-driven surge, Bloomberg’s rankings showed Musk leading with hundreds of billions of dollars, ahead of other technology billionaires including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Ellison.
The latest wealth jump was driven largely by SpaceX’s public market debut, which pushed the company’s valuation higher and increased the value of Musk’s ownership stake.
SpaceX’s historic listing helped lift Musk’s fortune, with his wealth rising by tens of billions of dollars almost immediately after trading began.
How Elon Musk’s wealth has grown in 2026
Elon Musk’s wealth has increased dramatically over the past year, driven mainly by surging valuations of SpaceX, Tesla, and his AI-related holdings.
At the start of 2026, his wealth was roughly $780 billion, while mid–2026 after the IPO, it stood at about $1.1 trillion. As his net worth jumped sharply to about $1.1 trillion, it made him the world’s first trillionaire on paper.
The increase came mainly from SpaceX valuation growth, Tesla share movements, Artificial intelligence investments through xAI, investor confidence in future space, satellite, and AI businesses.
Elon Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025, and became the first and only USD trillionaire in 2026 in June, according to Forbes, which estimates his net worth to be $1.1 trillion.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971, Elon Musk developed an early interest in computers and technology.
Born into the wealthy Musk family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated to Canada in 1989. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania before moving to California to pursue business ventures.
In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. Musk also became an American citizen in 2002.
In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer, and the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight.
Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008. It has since become a leader in electric vehicles. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left, growing discontent with the organisation’s direction and leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI, which became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026.
In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes and rebranding it as X in 2023. His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company, the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017.
In November 2025, Tesla approved a pay package worth $1 trillion for Musk, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals.
Musk is also a supporter of global far-right politics, figures, and political parties. He was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where he supported Donald Trump.
After Trump was inaugurated as president in January 2025, Musk served as senior advisor to the President and as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Shortly before a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration in May 2025 and returned to managing his companies.
Musk’s wealth differs from that of other billionaires
Unlike traditional billionaires whose fortunes were built primarily from consumer products, retail, or finance, Musk’s wealth is tied to industries viewed as shaping the future, such as Space technology, Artificial intelligence, Satellite internet, and Robotics.
The concentration in high-growth sectors has created enormous upside potential but also means his wealth can rise or fall sharply with company valuations.
