Elon Musk Just Became The First Person Ever Worth $700 Billion After Delaware Supreme Court Restored His Voided Tesla Stock Options
By Matt Durot,
Forbes Staff.
I write about the world’s richest people and their businesses.
The Delaware Court of Chancery had previously ruled in January 2024 that the process underlying the award of the options now worth $139 billion was not fair to shareholders.
Just four days after becoming the first person ever worth $600 billion, Elon Musk became the first person ever worth $700 billion on Friday, after the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had voided an award of Tesla stock options now worth $139 billion to Musk. Forbes estimates that Musk’s fortune now stands at a record $749 billion after he successfully appealed the decision.
Forbes had been discounting the value of the Tesla stock options in question by 50% since January 2024, when the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the process of awarding the options to Musk in 2018 was unfair due to Musk’s control over Tesla’s board. After the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday that “rescission [of the options] was an improper remedy,” Forbes removed that discount, bumping our estimate of Musk’s net worth by $69.5 billion.
After the ruling, Tesla is Musk’s most valuable asset once again. In addition to his stock options, he also owns 12% of the EV maker’s common stock, worth $199 billion, bringing the total value of his Tesla holdings to $338 billion. And that’s not counting a separate, record-breaking pay package Tesla awarded Musk in November, which could give him up to $1 trillion in additional stock (before taxes and the cost of unlocking the restricted shares) if Tesla achieves “Mars shot” performance milestones like growing its market cap more than eightfold over the next ten years.
Musk’s second most valuable asset, his estimated 42% stake in SpaceX, is now worth $2 billion less than his Tesla holdings (at an estimated $336 billion), based on a private tender offer launched this month that valued Musk’s rocket maker at $800 billion, up from $400 billion in August. Still, it could be SpaceX rather than Tesla that makes Musk the world’s first trillionaire, with the rocket maker said to be targeting an IPO in 2026 that could value the company at around $1.5 trillion.
Musk is roughly one Larry Page away from achieving that milestone. The Google cofounder and second-richest person in the world is worth an estimated $253 billion–or a staggering half-trillion dollars less than Musk. |
