Elon Musk’s wealth surged to a new high on Thursday, pushing his estimated net worth above $788 billion.
Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, CEO/owner of X (formerly Twitter), co-founder of Neuralink, and founder of xAI.
Nearing Trillion
According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Musk closed the day worth approximately $788.1 billion after shares of Tesla rose more than 4 percent, driven by renewed investor confidence following Musk’s comments about the company’s robotaxi ambitions.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musk said Tesla’s robotaxi service would be “very, very widespread” across the United States by the end of the year, following an initial launch in Austin, Texas, scheduled for June 2025. Tesla shares climbed roughly 4.2 percent Thursday to above $449, adding to gains from the previous session. The rally added nearly $13 billion to Musk’s fortune in a single day, surpassing his prior record of $780 billion set days earlier.
The move further cemented Musk’s position at the top of the global wealth rankings, ahead of Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They are followed by Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg, rounding out the top tier of technology-driven fortunes.
It was also announced on Thursday that, Tesla has discontinued its basic Autopilot driver-assistance system in the United States and Canada as it shifts customers toward its more advanced Full Self-Driving technology. New vehicles now come only with Traffic Aware Cruise Control, while features like Autosteer are no longer standard. The news was well-received on the stock market.
Musk’s wealth acceleration over the past year has been fueled by multiple events beyond Tesla’s stock performance.
SpaceX was recently valued at $800 billion, double its August 2025 valuation. A Delaware Supreme Court ruling reinstated Tesla stock options now worth an estimated $126 billion. Separately, Forbes reported that Musk added another $62 billion after xAI Holdings raised $20 billion at a $250 billion valuation. In November, Tesla approved a new compensation package that could ultimately be worth close to $1 trillion if financial and production benchmarks are met.
The scale of Musk’s fortune places it well beyond traditional wealth comparisons.
To put it in perspective, media maven Oprah Winfrey, one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world, has an estimated net worth of about $3.2 billion. Musk’s is nearly 250 times larger, underscoring how technology equity has reshaped the upper limits of personal wealth.
The contrast is even sharper when compared with professional sports.
On Forbes’ 2025 list of highest-paid athletes, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list at $1.4 billion. Musk’s net worth exceeds Ronaldo’s annual earnings by more than 560 times.
Even Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, who earned an estimated $133.8 million over the past 12 months, is dwarfed by Musk’s wealth.
Only a small group of athletes have reached billionaire status. James and Tiger Woods joined the three-comma club in 2022, while Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Junior Bridgeman reached that level after retiring.
Musk’s dominance follows a brief reversal in September 2025, when Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison temporarily overtook him after Oracle shares surged more than 40 percent in a single day on optimism surrounding artificial intelligence-driven cloud growth. Oracle projected that its cloud infrastructure revenue could rise from $18 billion this fiscal year to $144 billion by 2030, supported by multibillion-dollar AI deals with OpenAI, xAI, and Meta. Ellison’s net worth briefly climbed near $393 billion before retreating, allowing Musk to reclaim the top position.
Despite outrage over Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration and his leading DOGE, which led to massive protests against hm and Tesla, the electronic car company seems to back on the upswing. With Tesla set to report earnings on Jan. 28 and multiple valuation catalysts still in motion, Musk’s wealth trajectory continues to stand apart. At its current pace, it is approaching a threshold no individual has yet crossed.
