Elon Musk in Colorado in 2022.
Image: Trevor Cokley | Wikimeadia
Elon Musk is worth an estimated $822.3 billion, according to Forbes, making him the richest person in the world, and that fortune could hit $1 trillion when SpaceX lists or – at the current exchange rate of R16.26 – R16.26 trillion.
For context, global gross domestic product is $126 trillion.
The South African-born entrepreneur has built a fortune so large that some analysts believe he could become the first person in history to be worth more than $1 trillion if SpaceX proceeds with a public listing at the valuations currently being discussed.
But Musk’s wealth was not built through a single company. Instead, it was accumulated over three decades through a series of increasingly ambitious ventures, with each success funding the next.
Today, the 54-year-old’s fortune spans electric vehicles, space exploration, artificial intelligence, social media, brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure projects.
Born in Pretoria in 1971, Musk left South Africa as a teenager for Canada before studying economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
Musk’s first major business success came in 1995 when he co-founded Zip2 with his brother, Kimbal. The company developed online city guides and business directories for newspapers at a time when the internet was still in its infancy.
In 1999, computer giant Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million. Musk reportedly received about $22 million from the deal, giving him the capital to pursue bigger ambitions.
Rather than cashing out, he immediately reinvested the proceeds into a new venture called X.com, an online financial services company. Founded by Musk in 1999, it was one of the first internet-based banks.
SpaceX will rocket Elon Musk's fortune upwards.
Image: ChatGPT
X.com later evolved into PayPal, which became one of the world’s best-known online payment platforms.
In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Musk’s stake earned him about $175 million, transforming him from a successful entrepreneur into a wealthy businessman with the resources to pursue more capital-intensive projects.
Then, Musk used much of his PayPal fortune to launch SpaceX and invest heavily in Tesla, decisions that would ultimately define his career. He reportedly invested about $100 million into SpaceX and about $70 million into Tesla.
Founded in 2002, SpaceX initially faced scepticism from both the aerospace industry and investors. The company suffered several launch failures and came close to running out of money before securing contracts from NASA.
Over time, however, SpaceX grew into one of the world’s most valuable private companies through its rocket-launch business and the Starlink satellite internet network.
Musk is estimated to retain a stake of about 41% in the company, making it one of the largest contributors to his personal wealth. A listing for SpaceX is in the wings, and that’s how Musk is set to become the world's first trillionaire.
Reports put the value of the company, founded in 2002, as expected to range from $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion, up from a range that topped out at $1.5 trillion in March. The world’s most valuable company currently is NVIDIA, at $5.296 trillion.
How Elon Musk has made his money so far.
Image: ChatGPT
Tesla proved equally transformative. Although Musk was not one of Tesla’s founders, he became an early investor in 2004, later taking over as chief executive.
As investors embraced electric vehicles and Tesla’s market value surged, Musk’s fortune exploded. The bulk of his rise from billionaire entrepreneur to the richest person in the world is tied to Tesla’s share price performance over the past decade.
Tesla is currently worth R1.57 trillion, and its share price has gone from around $13 in 2014 to its current $418.
According to Forbes, Musk became the first person in history to exceed a net worth of $500 billion in October 2025.
Just one month later, Tesla shareholders approved a record-breaking compensation package that some estimates suggested could eventually be worth as much as $1 trillion.
In recent years, Musk has expanded his business empire even further through ventures including artificial intelligence company xAI, brain-computer interface developer Neuralink and infrastructure firm The Boring Company.
Musk also acquired Twitter in 2022, later rebranding the platform as X. He officially acquired Twitter in October 2022, in a transaction valued at around $44 billion.
While those businesses remain far smaller than Tesla and SpaceX, they add to a portfolio that now spans multiple industries and technologies.
This article is based on desktop research using company filings, published biographies, regulatory disclosures, company websites, wealth estimates and historical reporting.
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