In 2016, Musk started The Boring Company, which digs tunnels, and neurotechnology startup Neuralink. Both are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Those two most recent ventures are illustrative examples of the mindset that created Musk’s fortune.
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Musk is in uncharted territory, headed toward $300 billion. For comparison, Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest person to ever appear on The Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people earlier this month, topping the list with an estimated $201 billion fortune.
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His net worth climbed as high as $212 billion when Amazon’s stock peaked in July—a full $59.3 billion less than Musk is worth now. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates briefly surpassed $100 billion in April 1999, during the dot-com bubble’s apex. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just over $165 billion today.
When Forbes first began tracking billionaire wealth, in 1982, the richest person in America was shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig, worth $2 billion, or about $5.5 billion in today’s dollars.
Musk’s 23% stake in Tesla (discounted for loan obligations) constitutes the bulk of his fortune, but he also holds a minority stake in the privately-held rocket company he founded in 2002, SpaceX. The business was most recently valued by investors at $74 billion, following a February funding round.
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