Despite Tesla’s bumpy ride — down $7 billion from a year ago — billionaire Elon Musk still leads Forbes’ annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2024. This is the third consecutive year the SpaceX boss has dominated the list.
With an estimated fortune of $244 billion (US), Musk is far richer than the rival he will dethrone in 2022: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has been the SpaceX boss’s runner-up ever since. Bezos’s net worth is estimated at $197 billion.
With an estimated fortune of $244 billion, Elon Musk tops the Forbes 2024 list of the 400 richest Americans.
The gap between Musk and Bezos has narrowed significantly, with the Amazon founder’s fortune increasing by $36 billion since the 2023 Forbes 400. Last year, Musk was $90 billion richer than Bezos; now he’s just $47 billion richer. The value of Musk’s Tesla shares has fallen by about $53.6 billion since a year ago (Musk owns 12% of Tesla and options to buy 9% more). About half of that is due to a 14% drop in the electric-car maker’s stock, as increased competition and weaker demand for electric vehicles contributed to four straight quarters of losses.
The remainder is the result of a Delaware judge invalidating $56 billion in performance-based stock options awarded to Musk at Tesla in January, after ruling that Musk and his board members had failed to demonstrate that the underlying process leading to the awards was fair. Tesla shareholders voted in June to grant Musk a compensation package; Forbes left the 50% option open while Musk and Tesla appeal the Delaware ruling.
Even as Musk’s net worth has declined, the billionaire’s influence has grown. In July, the SpaceX boss used his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), to endorse Donald Trump less than an hour after an assassination attempt on the former president. Musk has denied allegations that he has pledged $45 million a month to Trump’s campaign personally, but has emerged as a major supporter.
Trump has promised to appoint Musk to a government commission if he returns to the presidency. But X continues to struggle, with revenue down 83% in the United States since Musk took over the company in 2022, according to The New York Times. Forbes estimates Musk’s 74% stake in X is worth about a quarter of the $22.9 billion he paid for it (excluding debt financing).
Fortunately for Musk, his other two companies have grown strongly over the past year, offsetting Tesla’s massive losses. In May, his new artificial intelligence startup, xAI, raised $6 billion at a valuation of $24 billion, helping Musk regain the title of world’s richest person—a title he ceded to French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault in January (Musk owns about 60% of xAI).
Then, in June, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX made an offer to buy xAI at a value of about $210 billion, up from an estimated $143 billion a year ago (Musk owns about 42% of the company).
Despite the positive developments, Musk has yet to reach the heights of November 2021, when he became the first and only person worth more than $300 billion and Tesla’s market capitalization hit an all-time high of $1.2 trillion. The company’s shares have fallen 48% since then, although Musk remains optimistic about the company’s future.
At Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk predicted that with initial production of the Optimus humanoid robot scheduled to begin in 2025, the company could one day be valued at more than $25 trillion.
If that happens, Musk — with his history of ambitious promises — could become the world’s first richest person to have a fortune worth more than a trillion dollars.
