Elon Musk has moved significantly closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire after a court reinstated his multibillion-dollar Tesla stock options.
According to Forbes’ real-time billionaires index, Musk’s net worth surged to $749 billion on Friday, making him the first person in history to surpass the $700 billion mark. He now sits roughly $500 billion ahead of the world’s second-richest individual, Google co-founder Larry Page.
The jump follows a ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court restoring Musk’s 2018 Tesla compensation package, which includes stock options now valued at about $139 billion. The package had been voided in 2024 by a lower court, which described the original $56 billion award as “unfathomable.”
That decision stemmed from a trial in which Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Tesla’s board was conflicted and that shareholders were not fully informed when they approved the deal. However, the state’s top court overturned that ruling, stating that rescinding the package left Musk “uncompensated for his time and efforts over a six-year period” and calling the earlier judgment improper and inequitable.
Musk has not released a formal statement but responded on his platform X by saying he was “vindicated.”
If Musk exercises all the restored stock options, his stake in Tesla would increase from about 12.4% to roughly 18.1%. The 2018 deal had been Tesla’s largest-ever pay package until November, when shareholders approved a new performance-based plan potentially worth up to $1 trillion.
Under the latest agreement, Musk will receive no salary. Instead, he must meet five major milestones over the next decade, including massive increases in vehicle production, robot deployment, self-driving subscriptions, profits, and Tesla’s market value. If all targets are achieved, Musk would receive more than 400 million additional Tesla shares, potentially pushing his wealth beyond the trillion-dollar threshold.
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