Musk halfway to becoming TRILLIONAIRE as net value reaches $500bn

By IMOGEN GARFINKEL - SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 08:30 BST, 2 October 2025 | Updated: 08:36 BST, 2 October 2025

Elon Musk is halfway to becoming the planet's first trillionaire after his net value briefly soared to more than $500bn (£370.9bn).It comes after shares in the billionaire's electric vehicle company, Tesla, rebound from his clumsy stint in politics, amid other gains. The tech magnate's net worth hit $500.1 billion Wednesday before dipping back to $499.1 billion, Forbes magazine's 'Real-Time Billionaires' tracker reported.Valuations of his other businesses including rocket company SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI have also reportedly risen in the past few months.The landmark event further cements the X owner's status as the world's richest person, leagues ahead of competitors in the global tech field. Ranked after him are Oracle CEO Larry Ellison with a net worth of $350.7 billion, followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a net worth of $245.8 billion on the Forbes list.Ellison is the world's second richest person, according to Forbes, but briefly overtook Musk in rankings last month when shares in Oracle soared by more than 40 percent, briefly raising his net worth to $393 billion.After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford University, Musk banked his first millions when he sold an online publishing software company to U.S. computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999. Elon Musk is halfway to becoming the planet's first trillionaire after his net value briefly soared to more than $500bn (£370.9bn)His next company eventually merged with PayPal, and after leaving that venture, the South African-born tech entrepreneur founded SpaceX in 2002 and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004.In June, Musk left his role as the head of The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid a public spat with U.S. President Donald Trump.Musk had been tasked with reducing U.S. government spending and cutting jobs, but he fell out with the president over his One Big Beautiful Bill Act which he warned would cost taxpayers billions and increase debt.Trump and the billionaire publicly reunited at conservative influencer Charlie Kirk's funeral in late September, however, and were filmed having a conversation inside a box at the State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona alongside more than 60,000 mourners.