Overview

• Forbes’ tracker put Musk at $499.5 billion at 19:55 GMT on Oct. 1 after briefly reaching $500 billion for the first time on record.
• An intraday rise of nearly 4% in Tesla shares drove the jump, adding roughly $7 billion to his estimated net worth according to multiple reports.
• Rising valuations for private ventures such as SpaceX and xAI also contributed to the 2025 gains cited across the coverage.
• Methodologies diverged, with Bloomberg’s billionaire index showing a substantially lower figure than Forbes, reflecting that these are paper estimates rather than liquid assets.
• Tesla’s board has proposed a performance-tied compensation plan valued up to $1 trillion as earlier award litigation continues in Delaware, and the milestone coincided with a protest at a Tesla-branded diner in Hollywood.