Who is Elon Musk and what is his net worth?

It seems like not a day goes by without billionaire Elon Musk making headlines - and in the future, we may be calling him a trillionaire.

The boss of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) is the world's richest person.

He became the first to achieve a net worth of more than half a trillion dollars (£370.9bn) in October 2025, according to Forbes, and a month later, Tesla shareholders approved a record-breaking pay deal that could be worth $1 trillion .

The planned flotation of SpaceX , which builds space exploration rockets and infrastructure but also owns xAI and Starlink, could push his net worth to about $1tn.

Musk has charged ahead with human brain chip trials at his firm Neuralink and tried to take a major role in the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence, despite warning that the tech could lead to humanity's extinction.

But he is also known for using his social media platform to air his views on a vast array of topics, particularly politics.

In early 2024, his reach expanded further after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election - in which the Tesla executive played a key but controversial role - before their relationship imploded in a bitter feud .

It's not just in the US where Musk has waded into political controversy - with posts and comments about current affairs in the UK, Germany and other European states frequently stoking the ire of politicians across the pond.