Elon Musk Net Worth 2026: How He Makes His Money

Elon Musk’s net worth is $948.5 billion as of October 2026, on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list on 14 October 2026. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index put him at $987 billion on 8 October 2026. Most of the fortune comes from his stake in SpaceX, which now includes xAI and X, with Tesla second.

Musk is the richest person in the world by more than $500 billion on both measures.

What is Elon Musk’s net worth in 2026?

Elon Musk’s net worth is between $948.5 billion and $987 billion in October 2026, depending on whether you use Forbes or Bloomberg. The gap comes from how each publisher values his shares and options.

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Both figures move daily with the SpaceX and Tesla share prices. Fortune reported that Musk’s Bloomberg figure reached $1.05 trillion during the week of 5 October 2026, then fell $63 billion in two days to $987 billion as SpaceX shares fell 3.5%. Forbes estimated he lost $21 billion on one morning that week after a report that SpaceX planned to raise $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips.

Forbes says Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on 12 June 2026, the day SpaceX started trading. He has moved above and below that line several times since. For context on where he sits against other billionaires, see our ranking of the richest people in the world.

How does Elon Musk make his money?

Musk makes almost all of his money from shares, not salary. His two largest holdings are SpaceX and Tesla, and smaller stakes in The Boring Company and Neuralink add to the total, according to Forbes.

SpaceX, xAI and X

SpaceX is now the largest part of the Elon Musk net worth figure. Its value rose sharply over the past year:

• December 2025: an insider share sale valued SpaceX at about $800 billion. Fortune reported that Musk’s 42% stake was then worth about $317 billion.
• February 2026: SpaceX acquired Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI. Bloomberg Law reported a $1 trillion value for SpaceX and $250 billion for xAI, or $1.25 trillion together. Forbes says X, the social network formerly called Twitter, had already been merged into xAI.
• June 2026: SpaceX listed on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. Reuters reported that it priced at $135 a share, raised a record $75 billion and was valued at $1.77 trillion. Fortune reported a first-day close of $161.11 and a market value of about $2.1 trillion.

Estimates of his stake vary. Forbes puts it at 38% including options. Fortune reported in October 2026 that he holds about 4.76 billion SpaceX shares plus 1.3 billion unvested restricted shares. Reuters reported that he controls about 82% of the voting power after the listing.

Tesla

Musk is Tesla’s chief executive. Forbes says he owns nearly 11% of the carmaker, not counting unvested restricted stock from his 2018 pay award. That stock could add about 8% more once it vests, before tax. Tesla was once the main source of his fortune, but it is now second to SpaceX.

The Boring Company and Neuralink

Musk founded The Boring Company, a tunnelling business, and Neuralink, which develops brain implants. Forbes says he has stakes in both and counts them in his net worth.

What is Elon Musk’s Tesla pay package?

Musk has two large Tesla share awards. The 2018 award was restored by a Delaware court in December 2025, and a new 2025 award could be worth close to $1 trillion if Tesla hits all its targets.

The 2018 award

A Delaware judge ordered this package rescinded in 2024. On 19 December 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court restored it. The award covers options on about 304 million Tesla shares, roughly 9% of the company’s stock, and was worth about $139 billion at the time of the ruling, according to Reuters.

The 2025 CEO Performance Award

Tesla shareholders approved a new award in November 2025, with more than 75% of votes cast in favour on preliminary figures, according to Manifest. Tesla’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission splits it into 12 tranches, each worth 1% of the company. Each tranche generally needs both a market value target and an operating target to be met:

• Market value targets start at $2 trillion and rise to $8.5 trillion.
• Operating targets include 20 million vehicles delivered, 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, 1 million Optimus robots delivered, 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation, and adjusted EBITDA rising from $50 billion to $400 billion.

Reuters reported that the award could be worth up to $878 billion if every target is met, while Manifest put it at almost $1 trillion. Before this, on 3 August 2025, Tesla’s board approved an interim award of 96 million shares, which Musk must pay $23.34 each for as they vest, according to a Tesla SEC filing.

How has Elon Musk’s net worth changed over the years?

Musk’s wealth has swung by hundreds of billions of dollars in a single year. It more than doubled between April 2025 and October 2026.

His sharpest fall came after the November 2021 peak: as Tesla shares dropped, his Bloomberg figure fell to about $125 billion within roughly eight months, according to cash.ch. On 15 December 2025 alone, Bloomberg added $168 billion to his total after the SpaceX insider share sale.

How does Elon Musk compare with other billionaires?

Musk is worth more than the next two richest people combined. The table uses Forbes real-time figures from 14 October 2026.

Most of the people near Musk built their wealth in technology. Fortunes outside tech are much smaller: the richest singers in the world and top athletes are worth a small fraction of his total.

Is Elon Musk’s net worth real money?

Mostly no. Nearly all of it is the paper value of shares, which rise and fall with the market. In a podcast interview reported by Fortune in October 2026, Musk said: “Trillionaire represents some percentage ownership in companies that I built, and it’s not sitting in a bank account.”

Three points explain the gap between paper wealth and spending money:

• Selling is visible. Share sales by a chief executive must be disclosed and can push the price down.
• Some shares are not his yet. Unvested Tesla and SpaceX awards only count in full once conditions are met.
• Control matters. Selling too many shares would cut his voting power at both companies.

That is also why billionaires often borrow against shares instead of selling them. Even so, the purchasing power is very large. For a sense of scale, see our guides to the most expensive private jets and the most expensive cars in the world.