Tech mogul Elon Musk became the first person to achieve a net worth of $500 billion, briefly touching the half-trillion-dollar milestone before dipping back down.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO crossed the $500 billion mark Wednesday afternoon on Forbes’s Real-Time Billionaires tracker. As of Thursday evening, he sat at $485. 8 billion.
Musk is about $136 billion richer than his closest peer, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Ellison briefly overtook Musk as the world’s richest person earlier this month, as his cloud company saw its stock soar on strong quarterly results.
Musk’s wealth is closely tied to Tesla’s performance, both of which fluctuated significantly over the past year.
His net worth soared in late 2024, as the electric vehicle maker’s stock rose on the assumption that his companies would benefit from Musk’s close relationship with President Trump.
However, Tesla’s value tumbled when Musk took on the highly controversial role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, bringing his net worth down with it.
Both have recovered since the billionaire left the White House and returned his attention to his companies.
After several quarters of weak sales, Tesla saw a bump in the third quarter, with deliveries up 7.4 percent from last year, according to new data released Thursday.
The company delivered 497,099 vehicles in the three-month period from July to September.
The EV maker could eventually turn Musk into the world’s first trillionaire.
Tesla has put forward a new pay package for its CEO that would grant him about 423 million shares if the company meets a series of milestones over the next decade. If those goals are met, the shares would be worth about $1 trillion.
Tesla shareholders are set to vote on the pay package in November. It comes as Musk’s 2018 pay package remains tied up in court, after a Delaware judge ruled it wasn’t negotiated fairly.
Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, I’m Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:
Tesla sales up 7 percent ahead of tax credit’s end
Tesla sales ticked up more than 7 percent in the third quarter as a federal tax credit for electric vehicles (EVs) was set to expire, reversing a significant dip in deliveries from the first half of the year. Elon Musk’s EV maker delivered 497,099 cars in the three-month period from July to September — up 7.4 percent from the same time last year and 29 percent from the previous quarter. The jump in sales comes as the …
Hispanic groups criticize Trump’s sombrero memes, videos
Several Latino advocacy groups called out President Trump over his use of artificial intelligence and memes to target Democratic congressional leaders, including depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wearing a Mexican-style sombrero. Hispanic Federation, the Latino Victory Foundation, League of United Latin American Citizens, Mi Familia Vota, UnidosUs and Voto Latino released a joint statement Wednesday condemning …
Billionaire Elon Musk is leading the charge on a campaign by right-wing media personalities and influencers urging Americans to cancel their Netflix subscriptions over an animated show that features a transgender character. Musk is promoting a series of posts from Chaya Raichik’s “LibsofTikTok” account, Benny Johnson and other conservatives urging users cancel Netflix over the show “Dead End: Paranormal …
News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
OpenAI valuation hits $500 billion while Altman signs more deals in Asia (Wall Street Journal)
Elon Musk cannot move SEC’s Twitter lawsuit out of Washington DC, judge rules (Reuters)
In Other News
Branch out with other reads on The Hill:
Cruz posts video of Democrats wearing sombreros, cartoon mustaches
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) on Wednesday posted a video online depicting a montage of his Senate Democratic colleagues wearing superimposed sombreros and cartoonishly large mustaches, taking a shot at Democrats who voted against a GOP proposal to fund the government. “The 44 Senate Democrats who voted for [Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s Shutdown should know that the Sombrero posting will continue until they re-open our government,” Cruz …
