According to the Forbes Billionaires Index, Musk’s fortune surged after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Tesla stock options worth $139 billion, overturning a lower court ruling that had voided the award last year. The options were part of Musk’s landmark 2018 pay package, which was initially valued at $56 billion.
In 2024, a Delaware court had struck down the compensation deal, calling it “unfathomable”, reported Reuters. On Friday, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision to rescind the package was improper and inequitable, effectively clearing the way for the pay plan to be restored in full.
The ruling caps a banner week for Musk. Earlier, he became the first individual in history to cross $600 billion in net worth, amid reports that his aerospace venture SpaceX could be headed for a public listing. Separately, Tesla shareholders in November approved a $1 trillion compensation framework for Musk—the largest corporate pay plan ever—backing his push to reposition the electric-vehicle maker as an AI and robotics powerhouse.
With the latest surge, Musk’s wealth now exceeds that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the world’s second-richest person, by nearly $500 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.
Musk’s rise to extraordinary wealth began early. In 1995, in his early twenties, he co-founded Zip2, a software company that helped newspapers take city guides online, Fortune reported. The startup was sold to Compaq for $307 million just four years later. He followed this with X.com, an online payments firm launched in 1999, which later merged with Cofinity, the parent of PayPal. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion—cementing Musk’s place among Silicon Valley’s most influential entrepreneurs.
He founded SpaceX in 2002, which has since become a central pillar of his wealth. He joined Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and took over as CEO in 2008. In 2016, Musk launched Neuralink and founded The Boring Company. His most controversial bet came in 2022, when he acquired Twitter—later rebranded as X—for $44 billion.
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