 "Elon Musk becomes first person ever to cross $700 bn mark thanks to Delaware Supreme Court ruling; Here's why")
Four days after becoming the first person in the world to cross the $600 billion mark, Tesla CEO Elon Musk became the first person ever to be worth $700 billion. According to Forbes, the tech mogul crossed the mark on Friday after the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had voided an award of Tesla stock options now worth $139 billion to Musk.
In light of the latest ruling, Forbes estimated that Musk’s fortune now stands at a record $749 billion after he successfully appealed the decision. The outlet had been discounting the value of the Tesla stock options in question by 50 per cent since January 2024, when the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the process of awarding the options to Musk in 2018 was “unfair”.
However, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that “rescission [of the options] was an improper remedy". Hence, Forbes removed that discount, bumping our estimate of Musk’s net worth by $69.5 billion. Following the ruling, Tesla became Musk’s most valuable asset yet again.
‘Mars shot’ performance
According to Forbes, in addition to his stock options, he also owns 12 per cent of the EV market’s common stock worth $199 billion, bringing the total value of his Tesla holdings to $338 billion. That’s not counting a separate, record-breaking pay package Tesla awarded Musk in November, which could give him up to $1 trillion in additional stock.
Hence, if Tesla achieves “Mars shot” performance milestones like growing its market cap more than eightfold over the next ten years, Musk can become the world’s first trillionaire. Meanwhile, Musk’s second most valuable asset is estimated to be his 42 per cent stake in SpaceX, which is now just $2 billion less than his Tesla holdings.
Interestingly, Forbes estimated that it is SpaceX rather than Tesla that makes Musk the world’s first trillionaire, with the rocket maker said to be targeting an IPO in 2026 that could value the company at around $1.5 trillion. The second-richest person in the world is Larry Page. The Google cofounder and second-richest person in the world is worth an estimated $253 billion–or a staggering half-trillion dollars less than Musk.
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