Elon Musk has become the first person in the world whose fortune has topped $800 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates. The jump follows a deal in which his rocket company, SpaceX, bought another Musk-controlled firm—xAI, an artificial-intelligence developer behind the Grok chatbot. Forbes calculates that the transaction added $84 billion to Musk’s wealth, pushing it to a record $852 billion.
In Forbes’ ranking of the world’s richest people, Musk now sits far ahead of his nearest rival. Second place is held by Google co-founder Larry Page, whose fortune the magazine puts at $281 billion.
Before the merger, Musk held a 42% stake in SpaceX, valued at $336 billion, and 49% of xAI, valued at $122 billion. After the deal, Forbes says his share in the combined entity stands at 43%, with total assets valued at $542 billion. “That makes SpaceX Musk’s most valuable asset,” the magazine notes.
As recently as December 20, 2025, Forbes reported that Musk’s fortune had surpassed $700 billion. Five days earlier, it was estimated at $677 billion, and the businessman was described as the first person to cross the $600 billion threshold.
Musk first topped Forbes’ list of the world’s richest businesspeople in January 2021—when his net worth was estimated at $190 billion.