Elon Musk became the first person in history with a net worth of more than $700 billion

Elon Musk became the first person in history to be worth $700 billion after the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had invalidated a Tesla stock option package now valued at $139 billion. After a successful appeal, Musk's net worth reached a record $749 billion, according to Forbes.

Forbes has priced those options at a 50% discount since January 2024, after the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that Musk's 2018 option grant was unfair to shareholders because of his control of Tesla's board of directors. On December 19, the Delaware Supreme Court found that "the cancellation [of the options] was an improper measure," and Forbes removed the discount, increasing the estimate of Musk's net worth by $69.5 billion.

Following this decision, Tesla once again became Musk's most valuable asset. In addition to options, he owns 12% of the electric car maker's common stock, which is valued at $199 billion. In total, his stake in Tesla is now worth about $338 billion. And that doesn't take into account the separate, record-breaking compensation package that Tesla approved for Musk in November. It could give him up to $1 trillion in additional shares (before taxes and the cost of unlocking restricted securities) if Tesla achieves the so-called “Mars leap” targets—specifically, increasing its market capitalization by more than eight times over the next ten years.

Musk's second-most valuable asset, his roughly 42 percent stake in SpaceX, is now valued at just $2 billion less than his stake in Tesla, at about $336 billion. The valuation is based on a private tender offer launched this month that valued the rocket company at $800 billion, down from $400 billion in August. However, it is SpaceX, not Tesla, that could make Musk the world's first trillionaire: the company is reportedly targeting an IPO in 2026 that could value it at around $1.5 trillion.

Before this milestone, Musk is about “one Larry Page” away. The Google co-founder and the second richest person in the world, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $253 billion - that is, almost half a trillion dollars less than Musk.