Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Elon Musk’s net worth reaches historic peak. What is it?

Trump’s ‘First Buddy,’ the world’s richest person, donated more than $250 million to Trump-aligned PACs this year

Kelly Rissman
Wednesday 11 December 2024 19:29 GMT
Comments
Awkward moment Trump asks Musk a baffling question at SpaceX launch

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Elon Musk now boasts a net worth of $400 billion, making him the first person in history to ever hit that milestone.

The world’s richest person became even richer Wednesday after SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy $1.25 billion of insider shares, valuing the company at $350 billion, Bloomberg reported. The move ballooned the founder’s net worth by $50 billion, meaning he is now worth $439 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Musk owns roughly 12 percent of Tesla, the world’s most valuable car company, Forbes noted. The company’s shareholders also gave him a 2018 compensation package worth more than $50 billion. But a Delaware judge struck it down Monday. She wrote in her decision that what would have been the largest pay deal in history was an “unfathomable sum” that “seems to have been calibrated to help Musk achieve what he believed would make ‘a good future for humanity.’”

Monday’s decision reaffirms her ruling in January, when she also rejected the pay package. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk wrote in January on X, another company he owns.

Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD), in Washington, U.S. December 5, 2024.
Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD), in Washington, U.S. December 5, 2024. (REUTERS)

He has vowed to use 58 percent of his Tesla shares as collateral for his personal loans, according to Bloomberg.

Musk acquired the social media platform, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022. Fidelity valued its stake in X at $5.53 million at the end of October, a nearly 72 percent decrease in value since Musk took over the company, according to its Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund monthly report.

The tech billionaire also owns about 54 per cent of xAI, an artificial intelligence company he founded in 2023. The startup was valued at $50 billion last month, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Then there’s SpaceX. Musk owns roughly 42 percent of the aerospace company, which was valued at $210 billion in June, according to Bloomberg. He also founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure company that says it aims to dig transportation tunnels to “solve traffic.” The company announced that it was worth $5.68 billion in April 2022 after a Series C funding round.

As of Wednesday, the business is valued at $350 billion, meaning SpaceX is the most valuable private startup in the world, according to Bloomberg.

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024.
President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024. (via REUTERS)

Neuralink, Musk’s computer-brain interface company that is developing brain chips, was valued at $5 billion as of June 2024, according to Reuters. In January, Musk posted on X that the first human patient received an implant from Neuralink and was “recovering well.”

Musk contributed a massive $230 million of his personal coffers to Trump’s America PAC, which he created, in the last month leading up to the presidential election, FEC filings Thursday revealed. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Musk made three separate $25 million donations to the super PAC, according to the records.

But that wasn’t all; the SpaceX founder also donated more than $20 million to the controversially named RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) PAC, which falsely presented the late Supreme Court Justice as a Trump champion, in late October, new filings show.

Trump tapped Musk to lead the newly created department of government efficiency alongside billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Despite campaigning on improving economic conditions for working class Americans, Trump has filled his next administration with a hefty handful of billionares, including Musk. The net worth of Trump’s second White House is estimated to be larger than the gross domestic product of more than 11 dozen countries.

Billionaires have doubled their wealth in the past decade, amounting to a combined total of $14 trillion, Swiss bank UBS reported this week.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in