Tesla's $29 billion pay package or loose change? How Elon Musk became the world’s richest man with a $400 billion empire
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File photo of Elon Musk. Photograph: (Facebook)
The wealth of Elon Musk reached a peak of $400 billion in December 2024 after Tesla’s shares exponentially rose following the landslide election victory of Donald Trump.
Since May 2024, Elon Musk has held the position of being the world’s richest person. He made headlines as being the richest last year after becoming the first billionaire ever to cross a net worth of $400 billion, primarily due to SpaceX’s staggering valuation of $350 billion. Other than SpaceX, the 53-year-old is part of several companies like Tesla, xAI, and Neuralink.
Musk's wealth was built through a series of high-stakes ventures and investments. And currently, another headline surfaced that Tesla announced an "interim" compensation amount worth $29 billion for Elon Musk. A few months ago, he also acted as senior adviser to President Donald Trump, leading the Department of Government Efficiency. But after a public feud with Trump, he left the Trump administration and announced the creation of his own political party, the America Party.
So, have you ever wondered how Elon Musk is getting richer and how he managed to acquire these assets and reach this level that helped him to become the richest person in the world, leaving behind several business tycoons?
How did Elon Musk become the richest man?
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, before moving to Canada in 1989, Tesla chief Elon Musk's entrepreneurial journey started with Zip2, a software company that he started with his brother Kimbal in 1995. The software company developed online city guides for newspapers, which were later acquired by 'Compaq' for $307 million in 1999, netting Musk $22 million for his 7 per cent stake.
Later in the same year, Musk co-founded X.com, an online payment company that became PayPal after merging with Confinity. He remained a major shareholder despite being ousted as CEO in 2000 due to strategic disagreements. Surprisingly, when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Musk earned $175.8 million after taxes when he retained an 11.7 per cent stake, according to a report by HT.
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SpaceX
After PayPal, he founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in 2002, with the aim of reducing space travel costs. Initially, he faced several failed attempts to launch the rocket, resulting in SpaceX facing near bankruptcy after three failed rocket launches by 2008. However, a fourth launch was successful, and a $1.6 billion NASA contract in 2008 saved his company. Currently, the value of SpaceX is $350 billion (December 2024 tender offer), and Musk owns 42%.
Tesla
In the meantime, Musk became CEO in 2008 after joining Tesla Motors in 2004 as a lead investor and chairman. Tesla aimed at producing electric vehicles (EVs). Initially, he invested $6.5 million in the company that saved Tesla from near collapse in 2008, when it was losing $10 million monthly.
Later, the stock price of Tesla surged by over 1,100 per cent from 2017 to 2022, driven by increased production and profitability.
xAI, X and other ventures
Along with these companies, Musk also acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, renaming it X. Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, also launched in 2023, reached a valuation of $50 billion by November 2024, with Musk holding a 54 per cent stake. His other companies, such as Neuralink, focused on brain-computer interfaces, and The Boring Company, specialising in tunnelling, have also added to his fortune.
Musk’s wealth hit a peak of $400 billion in December 2024 after Tesla’s shares soared following Donald Trump’s election victory. However, by March 2025, his net worth had fallen by $126 billion due to a 70 per cent drop in Tesla’s profits and widespread criticism over his political associations.
