What Is Elon Musk’s Net Worth? How the Tesla CEO Became the Richest Person

Elon Musk has amassed a record-breaking fortune. 

After selling PayPal in 2002, the entrepreneur began his meteoric climb to the top of Forbes’ billionaires list. He first broke through in 2012 with a net worth of $2 billion, per Forbes, and rushed to third on the ranking eight years later (knocking out Mark Zuckerberg). Just a week later, Musk took Bill Gates’ spot as No. 2, The Guardian reported.  

By 2024, Bloomberg announced that the Tesla CEO’s net worth had surpassed the $400 billion mark — making him both the richest person in the world and the first to ever reach that level of wealth. 

However, his worth has declined since. In March 2025, Musk’s net worth dropped by over $120 billion with a dip in Tesla’s stock, following his ties to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and unprecedented reach into the social services sector via his self-defined Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

So, what is Elon Musk’s net worth? Here’s everything to know about the billionaire’s wealth and how he amassed it. 

What is Elon Musk’s net worth?

Musk’s net worth is approximately $330 billion, Forbes reported in March 2025. That’s a massive drop from the record-breaking $486.4 billion wealth he had reached just a few months earlier in December 2024. 

Fortune reported that the history-making figure was thanks to SpaceX, an astronautics company Musk founded in 2002. At the time, the company received a $350 billion valuation with investors reportedly putting a lot of stake in Musk’s relationship with Trump. 

But the billionaire doesn’t get all of his wealth from building rockets. Only 26.6% of Musk’s wealth comes from SpaceX, per Forbes. The majority of his money — 58.3% to be exact — come from Tesla. Musk’s third largest asset is X.AI, an artificial intelligence startup that makes up just over 8% of his riches. 

How much has Elon Musk made from Tesla?

Tesla is Musk’s biggest source of income — his stake was valued at $195 billion in 2024, per Forbes. Shares for the automotive company surged following the 2024 election, which pushed Musk’s net worth over the $400 billion mark.  

After Trump was elected, he named the billionaire co-chair of the newly rebranded DOGE (which used to be the United States Digital Service), claiming to have the goal of reducing spending within the federal government. However, some have suggested that Musk’s influential role in the White House has had a negative impact on Tesla after its stock prices dropped by over 15% in 2025.  

One consultant for the business advisory firm Chamber of Commerce argued that Musk’s political involvement had “significantly impacted” the company’s reputation. 

“Instead of focusing on Tesla’s innovation and growth, he has become a polarizing figure, alienating key international markets where political sentiment plays a major role in consumer perception and decisions,” Abigail Wright told Newsweek.

Despite a lot of his worth coming from the tech company, Musk doesn’t earn a salary from Tesla. In 2018, shareholders approved a 10-year pay package for the CEO based on company performance that would gradually increase his stock share as the company grew. However, not everyone was on board. A shareholder named Richard Tornetta filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla that same year, alleging that the billionaire had misled investors, per NPR. 

In December 2024, a Delaware judge rejected the over $50 billion compensation package for a second time and awarded Tornetta $345 million for legal fees. Tesla wrote on X that it would appeal the ruling. 

Despite the mass of wealth behind Tesla, the company has paid $0 in federal income tax in several years, per multiple reports. According to Tesla’s annual financial report, they had $2.3 billion of U.S. income in 2024 but paid nothing in income tax, due in large part to tax breaks for executive stock options and other “unspecified ‘U.S. tax credits.’ ”

How much has Elon Musk made from SpaceX?

The tycoon’s share of the reusable rocket-building company SpaceX is valued at $89 billion, per Forbes. 

During a private share sale in December 2024, the company’s worth was deemed to be $350 billion. That valuation greatly increased Musk’s net worth as he is both the CEO and owns an estimated 42% stake, per Forbes. 

How much has Elon Musk made from X?  

X only makes up 2% of Musk’s wealth, about $6.7 billion. Forbes estimated that the social network — which he bought in 2022 and renamed less than a year later — has been a “money-losing investment” for the billionaire.

In addition to X, Musk’s wealth is comprised of other smaller assets. His artificial intelligence company, X.AI, makes up $27 billion of his fortune. His infrastructure startup, Boring Company, and his implantable brain-computer company, Neuralink, bring him $5 billion each. 

The remaining $6 billion of his fortune comes from cash and other investments, per Forbes.

How much has Elon Musk donated to charity?

Musk has donated an estimated $406 million throughout his lifetime, per Forbes, which is less than 1% of his total net worth. 

Some of those donations include $100 million to fund a STEM-focused school and university in Texas, $55 million to cancer research at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and $10 million to the University of Texas for “population research.” 

Many of his philanthropic efforts are made through his foundation, which he launched in 2001, per The New York Times. According to the Musk Foundation’s website, the organization supports renewable energy, human space exploration, pediatric research, science and engineering education and “safe” artificial intelligence that will “benefit humanity.” 

The New York Times reported that since 2020, Musk has funded the charity with billions of dollars of tax-deductible stock donations but that the foundation has not given enough away to technically be eligible for this deduction.

In 2022, Musk’s foundation donated $160 million, which was over $200 million less than the law required to make the seed donations tax-deductible. The foundation had an even larger gap in 2023, per The New York Times.

The newspaper also found that in 2021 and 2022, about half of the foundation’s donations went to organizations linked to Musk, his colleagues or his businesses.

He has also donated to both Democrats and Republicans over the years and, more recently, spent millions to support Trump.

What has Elon Musk said about his wealth?

Despite being the wealthiest person on earth, Musk has claimed he is disinterested in materialism. He wrote on X in 2020 that he was selling “almost all physical possessions” and planned to “own no house.”

A year later, Musk claimed that he was living in a $50,000 home in Boca Chica, Texas, that he was renting from SpaceX and only owned an “events house” in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

When his massive wealth was criticized by Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2021, the tycoon responded on X with a post that read: “I am accumulating resources to help make life multi-planetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”