Elon Musk is the wealthiest individual ever recorded, worth an estimated $839 billion, Forbes said on Tuesday, as a record 3,428 billionaires worldwide saw their combined fortunes surge to an all-time high of $20.1 trillion, AFP reported.
Musk topped the Forbes World’s Billionaires list for the second consecutive year after his fortune swelled by roughly $500 billion over the past twelve months, driven by rising valuations at Tesla and SpaceX, which is targeting a public offering in 2026.
He is the first person ever to surpass the $800 billion mark and is on course to become the world’s first trillionaire.
“It’s the year of the billionaire,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes Senior Editor, Wealth. “The planet added more than one billionaire per day over the past twelve months as the AI-powered stock market boom boosted fortunes to previously unimaginable heights.”
The billionaire’s list showed that Larry Page, co-founder of Google, follows far behind Musk, standing at second place with an estimated net worth of $257 billion, followed by his co-founder Sergey Brin at number three with a net wealth of $237 billion.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was spotted at number four with $224 billion, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, holding $222 billion, rounds out the top 5.
Forbes noted that US President Donald Trump’s fortune increased by 27%, to an estimated $6.5 billion, thanks largely to crypto dealings and his New York fraud penalty being thrown out. He ranks number 645 worldwide.
bd-pratidin/GR
