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The world’s richest person saw his fortune surge after xAI Holdings raised $20 billion from private investors earlier this month at a staggering $250 billion valuation, a figure Forbes has now confirmed.
The latest valuation marks a dramatic jump from the $113 billion figure Musk cited last March, when he merged his artificial intelligence startup xAI with his social media platform X (formerly Twitter). According to Forbes estimates, the deal increased the value of Musk’s 49% stake in xAI Holdings by $62 billion, bringing it to approximately $122 billion. As a result, Musk’s total net worth now stands at a record $780 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.
Several high-profile billionaire investors also benefited from the funding round. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud—one of Twitter’s earliest backers—along with Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, all saw significant boosts to their fortunes. Forbes estimates that Prince Alwaleed owns a 1.6% stake in xAI Holdings worth about $4 billion (excluding a larger stake held through his publicly traded Kingdom Holding Company), lifting his net worth to $19.4 billion. Dorsey and Ellison are each estimated to hold 0.8% stakes valued at roughly $2.1 billion, increasing their respective fortunes to $6 billion and $241 billion.
The massive funding round comes as xAI spends aggressively in the intensifying artificial intelligence arms race. According to internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg, the company burned through $7.8 billion in cash during the first nine months of 2024 alone. At the same time, xAI has faced controversy surrounding its Grok chatbot, which has drawn criticism for generating fake images of real women in bikinis and lingerie. The issue has escalated into legal action, including a lawsuit filed Thursday by Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children.
Musk’s rapid ascent toward the $800 billion milestone follows a string of unprecedented wealth benchmarks over the past year. In October, he became the first person ever worth $500 billion after Tesla’s stock nearly doubled in the five months following his announcement that he would step back from leading President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to refocus on Tesla. By December 15, Musk crossed the $600 billion threshold after private investors valued SpaceX at $800 billion, up from $400 billion just four months earlier. Four days later, he surpassed $700 billion after the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had voided a Tesla stock-option award now worth $126 billion.
Despite that legal victory, Tesla remains Musk’s second most valuable asset after SpaceX. His 42% stake in the rocket company is worth an estimated $336 billion. In addition, Musk owns 12% of Tesla’s common stock, bringing the total value of his Tesla holdings to roughly $307 billion. Not included in that figure is Tesla’s record-breaking compensation package approved in November, which could eventually award Musk up to $1 trillion in additional stock if the company meets ambitious long-term “Mars shot” performance targets—such as increasing its market capitalization more than eightfold over the next decade.
Musk now holds a staggering $510 billion lead over the world’s second-richest person, Google cofounder Larry Page, whose fortune is estimated at $270 billion. Only one other individual—Larry Ellison—has ever reached the $400 billion mark, and briefly. Since peaking in September and coming within $40 billion of Musk, Ellison’s net worth has fallen by $159 billion, dropping him from second to fifth place on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List. Remarkably, Musk’s stake in xAI Holdings alone is now worth more than the entire $109 billion fortune of Michael Bloomberg, the world’s 16th-richest person.
