Elon Musk has amassed a staggering amount of wealth like we’ve never seen before.
That may seem like hyperbole, but it’s true: The tech titan has a mind-boggling $839 billion net worth, according to Forbes’s annual World Billionaires List, making him the first person to surpass the $800 billion mark on his way to becoming the first trillionaire.
Musk is perched atop the publication’s ranking for the second year in a row, and now his status has been cemented as the richest person ever recorded. As the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and A.I. start-up xAI, the CEO saw his net worth get a big push forward by half a trillion dollars last year, thanks to his E.V. company’s rising value and his space company’s potential to go public this year.
And though things can change, Musk’s fellow billionaires have quite a ways to go to catch up. Google cofounder Larry Page sits at No. 2 on the ranking, with a net worth of $257 billion. His fellow exec Sergey Brin comes in at the three slot, thanks to his $237 billion fortune. Rounding out the top five are some familiar names: Jeff Bezos, with a $224 billion to his name, at No. 4, and Mark Zuckerberg following close behind at $222 billion. So, though those figures rounding out the top seem lightyears away from Musk’s fortune, it’s actually a pretty tight race for slots 2 through 5 on the list. As for LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, he and his family sit at number 6, at $190 billion.
There were a couple of newcomers on the list this year, too. Dr. Dre hit the $1 billion mark, currently placed at 3,331 in the ranking. Fellow music icon Beyoncé also joined the eight-figure fray, with help from her Cowboy Carter tour that ended last year. Other notable names making their debut are tennis star Roger Federer, filmmaker James Cameron, Warren Buffet’s successor Greg Abel, and Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk.
Overall, the world’s billionaires are richer than they’ve ever been before, worth a total of $20.1 trillion in an increase of $4 trillion since early 2025. The Forbes list has gained 400 people in the 10-figure club, to a total of 3,428, the most in the ranking’s 40-year history. Twenty induvial around the globe, meanwhile, have net worths climbing into the 12-figure mark, a group now worth $3.8 trillion; and to show just how fast these folks are accumulating their wealth, no one was a part of the 12-figure club in 2017, according to Forbes. All the unprecedented wealth increases have been fueled by the A.I. boom, fiscal policies that favor the affluent, and other markets, according to Forbes. The U.S. is home to the most billionaires (989) in the world, with China following behind (610) and India (229). And who knows, America could be home to the world’s first trillionaire by 2027.
Authors
