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Elon Musk’s name has become synonymous with innovation, entrepreneurship, and controversy. A prominent figure in the business world, Musk is known for his ventures in pioneering technologies and bold vision for the future.
As of November 2024, Musk’s net worth has soared to make him the wealthiest individual globally. How rich is Elon Musk?
This article explores the growth of Elon Musk’s net worth, from his early ventures to his current standing as one of the richest men on the planet.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated at $320.2 billion as of November 2024, which makes him the wealthiest person in the world.
- Musk co-founded six companies, including a rocket producer SpaceX, electric car manufacturer Tesla, tunneling startup Boring Company, and neurotechnology company Neuralink.
- Musk was a co-founder of ChatGPT developer OpenAI but parted ways with the company in 2018 and has since set up his own AI venture, GrokAI.
- In October 2024, Musk released Cybercab, a self-driving robotaxi, and the latest version of Tesla’s Optimus robot.
- In 2012, he signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least half of his wealth to philanthropic causes.
- Show Full Guide
Who Is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk Quick Facts
| Quick Facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Elon Reeve Musk |
| Date of Birth | June 28, 1971 |
| Place of Birth | Pretoria, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African, Canadian, American |
| Occupation | CEO of Tesla; Founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; Owner of X (formerly Twitter); Co-founder of Neuralink, OpenAI, The Boring Company, and Zip2 |
| Family | Grimes (ex-partner), Justine Musk (ex-wife); Talulah Riley (ex-wife); 11 children, including X Æ A-12 and Exa Dark Sideræl |
| Education | Attended Queen’s University, Canada; Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania |
| Early Career | Co-founded Zip2, a software company, in 1995; acquired by Compaq for nearly $300 million in 1999 |
| Net Worth 2024 | $320.2 billion, as of November 2024 |
| Achievements | Founded multiple companies that shaped the automotive, space, and energy sectors; named Time’s Person of the Year 2021 |
| Major Investments | Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, X (formerly Twitter), and Neuralink |
| Philanthropy | Musk Foundation; pledged to donate $100 million for carbon capture; notable donations to STEM education and disaster relief |
Elon Musk’s Net Worth in 2024
So, what is Elon Musk’s net worth in 2024?
Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated at $320.2 billion as of January 2024, according to Forbes.
The following table illustrates the evolution of his wealth over the past few years:
What Influences Elon Musk’s Wealth?
Musk’s net worth has experienced significant fluctuations driven by various factors, including stock market conditions, the performance of companies in which he owns stakes and global economic trends. The dynamic nature of Musk’s wealth reflects the inherent volatility of the industries he operates in.
Each new company Musk founded has been partially financed by proceeds from previous businesses, and each new venture has been more ambitious than the last.
Musk’s net worth soared in 2021 as the value of Tesla shares increased. His estimated wealth peaked at around $340 billion in that year as he overtook Jeff Bezos as the world’s wealthiest individual.
In January 2023, Musk set a new Guinness World Record for losing personal wealth, with his net worth having plunged by around $180 billion since November 2021.
Elon Musk’s net worth in 2023 saw a decline due to Tesla’s stock downtrend, and the acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, that has seen the company’s value plummet by around 72%.
Tesla’s founder’s net worth rebounded in 2024 and made Musk the world’s richest person once again. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List as of November 2024, Elon Musk has maintained the leading position, followed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Rumors suggest Elon Musk could be the first person ever to have a trillion-dollar net worth one day.
Early Ventures & Education
Early experiences laid the foundation for Musk’s future financial success. His determination to create game-changing projects became evident during this phase.
How Did Elon Musk Make His Money?
Musk made his fortune from several businesses that have become industry leaders, including PayPal and Tesla.
Breakthrough with PayPal
Musk disagreed with X.com’s president and chief executive officer (CEO) Bill Harris about the potential of the money transfer business. Harris left the company in 2000. Musk decided in late 2000 that X.com would terminate its banking operations to focus on payments. Peter Thiel then replaced Musk as the CEO of X.com. The company was renamed PayPal in June 2001 and went public in February 2002 under the ticker symbol PYPL. The initial public offering raised over $61 million.
The breakthrough for Musk came with PayPal’s success. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock. As PayPal’s largest shareholder, Musk received $175.8 million, providing a substantial boost to his net worth.
Expansion into SpaceX & Tesla
Musk reinvested some of the funds into founding a rocket producer and spaceflight services company SpaceX in 2002, aiming to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars.
Reportedly, Space X was valued at nearly $210 billion in June 2024 in a planned secondary market share sale. The company launched 96 orbital missions in 2023.
In 2004, Musk became an early investor in Tesla Motors, leading it to focus on electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing. He was initially the company’s chairman and product architect, becoming CEO in 2008.
Solar Energy & AI Projects
In 2006, Musk helped to launch SolarCity, a solar energy company that Tesla acquired in 2016 and rebranded as Tesla Energy. The company sells and installs solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and battery systems.
In 2015, Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research firm. He resigned from OpenAI’s board in 2018.
In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing implantable brain-computer interfaces. He then founded the Boring Company, which specializes in tunnel construction and equipment, as a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2017. It was subsequently spun off as a separate company in 2018.
The Boring Company raised $675 million in April 2022, valuing it at $5.7 billion, and an employee share increased its valuation to $7 billion in October 2023.
In 2024, Elon Musk’s AI projects have seen major advancements, particularly with his AI company, xAI. The company launched Colossus, the world’s most powerful AI training system, which is designed to process large-scale AI workloads.
Colossus utilizes 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs and will soon double in size to 200,000, surpassing the AI infrastructures of giants like Google and OpenAI.
In October 2024, Musk released Cybercab, a self-driving robotaxi, and the latest version of Tesla’s Optimus robot.
Additionally, Musk’s investments in AI across his ventures are set to total $10 billion by the end of the year, focusing on supercomputers, GPU clusters, and training large language models like Grok.
Turning Twitter into X Super App
In 2017, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal. He has since discussed creating X as an “everything app” or super app.
In 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion after he controversially threatened a hostile takeover and then backed out. Twitter sued, and the entrepreneur was ordered by the court to proceed with the acquisition, taking an estimated 74% stake. He subsequently merged the company into the newly-created entity X Corp. and rebranded the service as X in 2023.
What Does Elon Musk Own?
Elon Musk’s wealth is derived from his ownership stakes in the various companies he has co-founded – primarily Tesla and SpaceX.
- SpaceX’s value has reportedly increased from $175 billion in December 2023 to $210 billion in June 2024. That would value Musk’s 44% stake at around $92.4 billion.
- Tesla has a market capitalization of $1.123 trillion as of November 2024, valuing Musk’s 22.3% stake at around $250.42 billion.
- The Boring Company was most recently valued at $7 billion
- Neuralink is valued at around $180 billion in a private fundraising round in April 2024, according to Pitchbook.
- X was valued at $9.4 billion in October 2024, according to the valuation from Fidelity.
- xAI could be valued at around $40 billion as the company tries to keep up with its rival OpenAI and its growing valuation.
- Musk Foundation reported $2.55 billion in revenue and $650.7 million in net assets as of December 2022.
The billionaire no longer owns stakes in Zip2, PayPal, SolarCity, or OpenAI.
Elon Musk’s Family: Relationships & Children
Real Estate & Other Investments
Beyond his corporate holdings, Musk amassed a $100 million real estate portfolio in California before he declared in 2020 that he was “selling almost all physical possessions” and would “own no house.” He sold each property at a profit, further adding to his wealth.
In 2021, Musk claimed to live in a $50,000 house he rented from Space X in Texas, where he moved to be closer to the company’s headquarters.
In 2024, Musk reportedly bought a Texas compound for his children and their mothers.
Elon Musk’s Companies
A closer look at SpaceX, Tesla, and other companies founded or led by Musk reveals the innovative technologies and products that have contributed to his immense wealth.
SpaceX is Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company. Founded in 2002, SpaceX has revolutionized the private space industry by developing reusable rocket technology.
With a focus on reducing the cost of space travel and making it accessible, SpaceX has become a key player in the commercial space sector, regularly launching satellites, cargo, and even astronauts to the International Space Station.
Tesla is an EV and renewable energy company that has transformed the automotive industry, blurring the lines between an automaker and technology company. Founded in 2003, Tesla’s vehicle models, such as the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y, have dominated the global EV market in recent years, becoming popular among early adopters and technology enthusiasts.
Beyond automobiles, Tesla is involved in solar power and battery storage systems. Tesla’s innovative approach has propelled it to the forefront of the global automotive and energy markets.
The Boring Company, founded by Musk in 2016, aims to revolutionize urban transportation and infrastructure by reducing traffic congestion. Musk envisions a network of underground tunnels that enable high-speed traffic over long distances using EVs on the platforms known as “Loop” and “Hyperloop.”
The Boring Company aims to provide faster and more sustainable alternatives to traditional surface transportation by creating efficient underground transportation systems.
Neuralink, co-founded by Musk in 2016, is at the forefront of neurotechnology and brain-machine interface development. Neuralink is developing implantable brain-machine interface devices to enable direct communication between the human brain and external devices.
The technology has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of neurological conditions and enhance human cognitive abilities.
Twitter, established in 2006 and controversially acquired by Musk in 2022, is an influential social media platform that fundamentally changed how people communicate and share information online. Users ranging from individuals to celebrities, politicians, and global organizations, resort to Twitter to share thoughts, news, and updates in real-time.
Rebranded by Musk as X in 2023, the microblogging platform is at the center of controversial debates surrounding freedom of speech.
Musk founded AI startup company xAI in March 2023, with a mission “to accelerate human scientific discovery” and “advance our collective understanding of the universe.” The company is separate from X Corp “but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission,” according to its website. In November 2023, xAI launched its chatbot, Grok, to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The xAI PromptIDE is an integrated development environment (IDE) for prompt engineering and interpretability research. It was developed to give AI engineers and researchers transparent access to the model that powers Grok.
Philanthropy & Spending
While Musk is known for accumulating vast wealth, he has also pledged to give back. In 2012, he signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment by some billionaires to donate at least half their wealth to philanthropic causes in their lifetime or their wills.
The Musk Foundation, which has assets in the millions of dollars, makes grants in support of:
- Renewable energy research and advocacy
- Human space exploration research and advocacy
- Pediatric research
- Science and engineering education
- Development of safe AI to benefit humanity
The foundation has made donations, including $55 million to the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, $54 million to the X Prize Foundation, which Musk partnered with to create a prize for carbon removal projects, as well as donations to school districts in the area around the SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.
A tax filing for 2023 indicated that Musk donated $100 million to the foundation to establish a primary and secondary STEM school in Texas and later to seek accreditation to launch a university.
Musk claims to hold all his net worth in stocks and minimal cash. He can use his Tesla and SpaceX stock as collateral to take out loans at low interest rates. Musk can mix his personal and business finances, writing checks to cover expenses when his companies struggle to generate value.
While Musk claims to eschew most personal spending, he owns a private jet and a collection of luxury cars.
The Bottom Line
The accumulation of Elon Musk’s money reflects his entrepreneurial talent and ability to disrupt multiple industries. From his early ventures to the success of SpaceX and Tesla, his journey to becoming the world’s richest man proves the value of pushing the boundaries of technology.
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References
- Elon Musk (Forbes)
- Forbes Real Time Billionaires List – The World’s Richest People (Forbes)
- Musk’s Boring Company shares rise over 22% in employee share sale – The Information | Reuters (Reuters)
- SpaceX Reportedly Valued At Around $210 Billion In Planned Secondary Market Share Sale (Forbes)
- Tesla (TSLA) – Market capitalization (Companiesmarketcap)
- Exclusive: Musk’s Neuralink valued at about $5 billion despite long road to market | Reuters (Reuters)
- Elon Musk’s xAI Eyes $40 Billion Valuation, Report Says (Forbes)
- Musk Foundation – Nonprofit Explorer – ProPublica (Projects.propublica)
- Elon Musk on X (X)
- Elon Musk on X (X)
- Elon Musk Bought a Texas Compound for His 11 Kids and Their Mothers – The New York Times (Nytimes)
- About xAI (X)
- Form 123 (Assets.bwbx)
