Elon Musk set a new wealth record when he became the first person with a net worth of half-a-trillion dollars.
The achievement was short-lived, but for a few hours on Wednesday Musk was worth an incredible $500,1-billion. This dropped to $499-billion later in the afternoon.
Musk’s net worth has been boosted by better performances from Tesla, xAI and SpaceX, and places him about $150-billion ahead of the world’s second-richest man, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Just five years ago, Musk was worth $24,6-billion. This climbed to $100-billion towards the end of 2020, $200-billion in 2021 and $400-billion in 2024. Having hit the $500-billion mark this week, Musk could conceivably become the world’s first trillionaire by 2033 under a compensation package proposed by Tesla.