Breaking the $600 Billion Barrier

Remember when Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the world's richest person back in September? That feels like ancient history now. Musk has pulled so far ahead that he's worth $400 billion more than Ellison today.

Thanks to a secondary sale round that values SpaceX at $800 billion ahead of a potential 2026 IPO, Musk's net worth has rocketed to $638 billion according to Bloomberg's latest estimate. That makes him the first human ever to be worth $600 billion or more. The SpaceX valuation alone added $167 billion to his wealth in a single day. For 2025 so far, he's up $205 billion.

To understand just how far ahead Musk is, consider this: he now leads second-place Larry Page, the Google co-founder whose wealth has climbed alongside Alphabet (GOOG)(GOOGL) shares, by $373 billion. That's not a typo. The gap between first and second place is larger than the entire net worth of almost everyone else on the planet.

Worth More Than Three Legends Combined

Here's where things get really wild. Musk, the Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO, is now worth more than Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett combined. Let's break down their current wealth levels:

• Jeff Bezos: $246 billion, up $6.99 billion year-to-date
• Mark Zuckerberg: $229 billion, up $21.5 billion year-to-date
• Warren Buffett: $152 billion, up $10.2 billion year-to-date

Add those three together and you get $627 billion. Musk isn't just worth more than this trio combined—he has an extra $11 billion sitting on top.

These three rank as the fourth, sixth, and 10th richest people in the world respectively. While Bezos and Zuckerberg have both gained wealth in 2025, they've been leapfrogged by others posting even bigger gains. Bezos and Zuckerberg were ranked second and third at the end of 2024, but both have slipped down the list. Buffett has held steady at 10th, the same position he occupied at the close of 2024.

The Path to a Trillion Dollars

Musk became the first person worth $500 billion and then $600 billion in 2025. Now the question is whether he'll become the first trillionaire—and how soon that might happen.

A SpaceX IPO could be the catalyst that gets him there. The space company is reportedly eyeing a valuation of $1.5 trillion, which would push Musk's net worth above $900 billion. Suddenly, that $1 trillion milestone doesn't look so far away. It could happen in 2026 or shortly after.

Tesla shares have been climbing into the end of 2025, hitting a new all-time high on Tuesday that finally surpassed the previous record of $488.54 set last December. Analysts are bullish on the electric vehicle maker's future, with increasing focus on growth drivers like robotaxis and Full Self-Driving technology.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives projects Tesla could reach a market capitalization of $2 trillion to $3 trillion over the next one to two years, compared to its current $1.6 trillion valuation. If Tesla shares continue climbing, that's another engine driving Musk toward the trillion-dollar mark.

Then there's Musk's recently approved pay package, which could theoretically pay the CEO nearly $1 trillion if certain ambitious milestones are achieved.

Between rising Tesla shares, a SpaceX IPO at a $1.5 trillion valuation, and a performance-based compensation package, Musk has multiple pathways to becoming the world's first trillionaire. The really surprising part? It might happen sooner than anyone expects.