Elon Musk makes history as world’s richest person with $638bn net worth

Tesla chief executive officer, Elon Musk, has become the first person in the world to reach a net worth of $638 billion.

Figures from Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index show a clear gap between the South African-born American billionaire and other wealthy individuals across the globe.

According to the data, Musk’s wealth increased by 42.7 per cent within one year, rising sharply between December 2024 and 2025.

The new value is also 140.75 percent higher than that of his counterpart, Larry Page, who ranks second at $265 billion.

The index ranks Sergey Brin and Jeff Bezos as third and fourth, respectively, with a value of $246 billion.

Larry Ellison ($238 billion) ranks fifth, followed by Mark Zuckerberg ($229 billion) and Bernard Arnault at $202 billion.

Also listed on the top 10 chart are Steve Ballmer ($166 billion), Jensen Huang ($153 billion), and Warren Buffett at $152 billion.

In December 2024, Musk overtook Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, to cross the threshold of over $400 billion — the first time ever.

Musk, who is also the founder of xAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) firm, recently announced the launch of Grokipedia, an online encyclopedia expected to rival Wikipedia.