Elon Musk's Net Worth: A Mind-Blowing Fortune Built on Innovation
Elon Musk is one of the wealthiest people in the world. In late 2021, Musk's net worth peaked, reaching $340 billion, although it has since dropped.
April 21 2023, Updated 11:39 a.m. ET
As the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and PayPal, Elon Musk has properly positioned himself to become one of the wealthiest people in the world. September 2021 marked a milestone in Musk’s life after he overstepped Jeff Bezos for the title as the world’s richest person. Although Musk has struggled to maintain it (Bernard Arnault is now the world's richest person), he remains in the top five of the wealthiest people to exist.
So, what is Elon Musk's net worth today?
Not only is the billionaire tech entrepreneur known for his large fortune, but he's also categorized as one of the world's most powerful people and is considered a top innovative leader by Forbes. It seems as though Musk has it all — money, power, and respect. Here's a look at Musk's current net worth and where he keeps most of his money.
Elon Reeve Musk
Business magnate and investor
Net worth: $164 million
Despite having billions of dollars to his name, Elon Musk takes a more frugal approach to life. In 2021, Musk sold six of the seven homes he owned and has a small fleet of private jets which he mainly uses for business. While he isn't big on spending, he is on dating. Musk not only married three time, twice to Talulah Riley, but he has also been linked to actress Natasha Bassett and has nine living kids (and one deceased).
Born: June 28, 2971
Birthplace: Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
Education: Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA and BS
Partner(s): Justine Wilson (m. 2000; div. 2008)
Talulah Riley (m. 2013; div. 2016) and (m. 2010; div. 2012)
Dated Grimes from 2018-2021
Kids: 10 (one child died of SIDS)
Parents: Errol Musk and Maye Musk
Elon Musk made most of his money from his Tesla stock.
Similar to his rockets, Musk's net worth is constantly rising and dropping. As of April 2023, Musk's net worth was $164 billion, per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, reflecting a $13 billion loss he took in a single day after a SpaceX rocket blew up and Tesla shares plummeted by 20 percent.
While conducting a test flight with SpaceX's Starship rocket on April 20, 2023, the rocket exploded. That same day, Tesla stock also took a significant dip, which caused Musk's net worth to drop.
But that's how it goes when most your wealth is tied to your company's stock. As of February 2023, Musk owned 412 million shares of Tesla stock and "holds options to purchase another 304 million at a bargain-basement price of $23.34 a share," according to CNN.
Elon Musk doesn't collect a salary.
Although Musk has an extreme net worth, in a statement in 2018, Tesla said that he doesn't receive a salary. Per the statement, "Elon actually earned $0 in total compensation from Tesla in 2018, and any reporting otherwise is incorrect and misleading."
The statement also said, "Unlike other CEOs, Elon receives no salary, no cash bonuses, and no equity that simply vests by the passage of time. His only compensation is a completely at-risk performance award that was specifically designed with ambitious milestones, such as doubling Tesla's current market capitalization from approximately $40 billion to $100 billion."
"As a result, Elon's entire compensation is directly tied to the long-term success of Tesla and its shareholders, and none of the equity from his 2018 performance package has vested."
In a 2019 proxy statement, Musk stated that although he technically had a small salary that followed California's minimum-wage laws, he has "not accepted his salary in the amounts of $56,380, $49,920, and $45,936 for 2018, 2017, and 2016, respectively." He simply refuses his annual paycheck from Tesla each year.
Business Insider wrote, "Many CEOs receive most of their compensation in the form of shares or stock options to buy shares at a given price and time. Often, those stock option grants don't vest or become available to the CEO until some amount of time has passed — or, as in Tesla's case, some set of performance goals are met."
Therefore, it is difficult to pin down exactly how much a billionaire like Musk makes in a year. He has eschewed a traditional salary in favor of riskier but potentially more rewarding compensation. Judging by the consistent uptick in Tesla shares, it seems that he made the right move.
Elon Musk owns many companies, including Twitter.
Musk owns five companies which include SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion. While the move certainly gave Musk a firm footing in the social media space as the platform has more than 400 million active monthly users, it has also landed the CEO in hot water.
On April 20, 2023, Musk announced that Twitter had started its process to remove blue checkmarks on Twitter, which signify an account is authentic. Only those who subscribe to Twitter Blue can obtain the check mark, given they meet all other requirements. Big names like Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Donald Trump, and Beyoncé all lost their check marks for the time being.
But there was much confusion surrounding the removal of blue check marks on Twitter as some who didn't subscribe to the monthly fee, like Stephen King, still retained the mark, according to Variety.
