Billionaire Elon Musk, recognised as the richest individual globally, is close to reaching the milestone of being the first trillionaire on the planet, as reported by Forbes magazine on Wednesday.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX became the first individual to briefly attain a net worth of $500 billion, as shares in his electric vehicle company rebounded following a tumultuous period in politics, among other gains.
On Wednesday, the 54-year-old’s net worth reached $500.1 billion before falling back to $499.1 billion, according to the “Real-Time Billionaires” tracker by the publication.
Following Musk is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, whose net worth is $350.7 billion, and then Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $245.8 billion, according to the Forbes list.
After earning his degree from the University of Pennsylvania and leaving Stanford University, Musk made his first millions by selling an online publishing software company to US technology firm, Compaq, for over $300 million in 1999.
His next venture eventually merged with PayPal, and after departing from that enterprise, the South African-born tech innovator established the space exploration company SpaceX in 2002 and assumed the role of chairman at electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla in 2004.