Elon Musk’s net worth has surged to an estimated $749 billion, putting him within striking distance of the $1 trillion threshold even before the separate $1 trillion pay package Tesla shareholders approved earlier this year.
The dramatic jump followed a landmark ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court on Friday, which reinstated Tesla stock options now valued at about $139 billion that had been voided by a lower court in 2024, according to Forbes’ billionaires index.
The ruling restored Musk’s 2018 CEO compensation plan, a milestone-based package that was initially valued at about $56 billion when it was granted but ballooned in value as Tesla’s share price soared. The court said rescinding the pay plan outright was an excessive remedy and unfair to Musk, effectively ending a years-long shareholder lawsuit that had cast uncertainty over one of the largest executive pay deals in corporate history.
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But the significance of the decision goes far beyond the revived options themselves. It highlights just how close Musk already is to becoming the world’s first trillionaire based on existing assets alone, without factoring in the eye-watering future compensation Tesla has put on the table.
Musk’s wealth trajectory over the past decade has been unlike anything seen before. As recently as 2012, his net worth was estimated at under $10 billion, largely tied to his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla’s rise from a niche electric vehicle maker into one of the world’s most valuable companies fundamentally altered that picture. Between 2019 and 2021, as Tesla shares surged more than tenfold, Musk vaulted past Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, a position he has since cemented with a widening lead.
Tesla remains the single largest contributor to Musk’s fortune. His roughly 13% stake in the company, combined with stock options from the reinstated 2018 plan, accounts for several hundred billion dollars of his net worth. Even during periods of volatility in Tesla’s share price, Musk has retained enormous paper gains, underscoring how deeply his personal wealth is leveraged to the company’s equity performance.
SpaceX has emerged as the second major engine of Musk’s financial ascent. Valued privately at about $800 billion in recent funding rounds, the rocket and satellite company has become the most valuable private aerospace firm in the world. Reports early this month that SpaceX is edging closer to an initial public offering pushed Musk’s net worth past $600 billion for the first time, even before the Delaware ruling was handed down. A public listing of SpaceX, even a partial one, could unlock tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in additional value for Musk.
Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk controls or holds significant stakes in xAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. While these ventures are smaller in valuation today, investors increasingly view them as long-term options on artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and next-generation infrastructure. In particular, xAI has benefited from the broader AI investment frenzy, adding yet another growth lever to Musk’s already sprawling empire.
Taken together, these assets mean Musk is already approaching the $1 trillion net worth milestone on paper, even without counting the new compensation framework Tesla shareholders approved in November. That plan, described as the largest corporate pay package ever proposed, could ultimately be worth around $1 trillion if Tesla hits a series of extremely ambitious market capitalization, revenue, and operational targets over the coming years. Importantly, those targets are additive, meaning they sit on top of Musk’s existing equity and wealth rather than replacing it.
In effect, the approved package positions Musk to potentially move far beyond the trillion-dollar mark if Tesla succeeds in executing his vision of transforming the company into a dominant force in artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems. Investors who backed the plan signaled that they see Musk not merely as an automaker CEO, but as the architect of a platform company whose future value could dwarf today’s valuations.
The Delaware Supreme Court’s decision also carries broader implications for Musk’s financial future. By rejecting the rescission of a shareholder-approved pay package, the ruling strengthens Musk’s hand in defending unconventional compensation structures tied to long-term performance. It also reassures markets that the legal risks surrounding his past pay have largely been cleared, removing a major overhang from Tesla’s governance narrative.
However, critics continue to argue that Musk’s wealth concentration and influence pose risks to corporate accountability and market stability. But supporters counter that his fortune is the product of extraordinary value creation, pointing to Tesla’s transformation of the global auto industry and SpaceX’s dominance in commercial spaceflight.
What is no longer in dispute is the scale of Musk’s financial ascent. With a net worth now pushing $750 billion, multiple high-growth assets still private, and a separate $1 trillion pay framework waiting in the wings, Musk stands closer than anyone in modern history to crossing the trillionaire threshold. This milestone once seemed implausible, but now looks increasingly within reach.