The fortune, line by line
What Elon Musk actually owns, how Forbes and Bloomberg turn it into a number, and why the two disagree.
Net worth is a model, not a bank balance. Here is every input, with the filing it comes from.
SpaceX: about $686 billion
Musk's Schedule 13G, filed August 13, 2026, lists 849,494,440 Class A and 3,916,980,790 Class B shares held through trusts, 1,302,072,285 restricted Class B shares from performance awards, and 350,000,000 Class B options — 6,418,547,515 shares, or 48.4% of the company on an as-converted basis, with 82.4% of the voting power. Reuters
| Line | Shares | At $134.72 | Counted by Forbes? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted Class A + B | 4,766,475,230 | $642.1B | Yes |
| Options (strike ~$8.40) | 350,000,000 | $44.2B intrinsic | Yes |
| Restricted Class B (Mars / orbital-compute awards) | 1,302,072,285 | $175.4B | No — unearned |
The restricted shares are the famous awards: 1 billion shares that vest only if SpaceX hits market-cap milestones up to $7.5T and establishes a self-sustaining Mars colony of a million people, plus ~302 million tied to 100 terawatts of off-Earth compute. SpaceX's own filing called the goals “improbable.” Every Musk share is locked up until June 12, 2027. Fortune
Sensitivity: each $1 move in SpaceX stock moves the fortune by about $5.1 billion; a 1% move is roughly $7.6B.
Tesla: about $158 billion (or $280 billion)
On June 16, 2026 Musk exercised all 303,960,630 options from the restored 2018 award at $23.34 a share, with Tesla at $404.66 — a paper gain of about $116B. 17.5 million shares were withheld to cover the exercise price and 286,428,773 new shares arrived, restricted until January 19, 2028. Added to the 413,152,109 shares already in his trust, he owns 699,580,882 shares — 19.9% of Tesla. Electrek
| Line | Shares | At $399.81 | Counted by Forbes? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned, unrestricted | 395,620,252 | $158.2B | Yes |
| Exercised 2018-award shares (locked to Jan 2028) | 286,428,773 | $114.5B | No |
| 2025 CEO Performance Award (unearned) | 423,743,904 | $169.4B | No |
The 2025 award — approved by shareholders on Nov 6, 2025 — pays out in twelve 1% tranches only as Tesla reaches market caps from $2T to $8.5T alongside goals like a million robotaxis and a million Optimus robots. As of the October 2026 proxy, none has been earned. Roughly 236 million of his shares were pledged against personal loans at the last disclosure; Tesla caps that borrowing at $3.5B. IFR
Everything else: about $24 billion
Forbes carries a single $23.966B line for his private holdings. The Boring Company raised $3B at a $23B valuation in September 2026 (Musk owned more than 90% at the 2018 spin-off; the current stake is undisclosed). Neuralink was valued at about $9B in June 2025; he seeded it with $100M. xAI and X no longer appear separately — they became SpaceX stock in February 2026.
Cash: he has said only about 0.1% of his wealth is cash or cash-like — under a billion dollars. Houses: he sold seven California homes for ~$175M in 2020–21 and says he rents a ~$50,000 prefab at Starbase, though the New York Times traced at least 37 entities holding property for his use. Crypto: he has said he personally owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, amounts never disclosed; SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC and Tesla ~11,509. Wealth of Elon Musk
Forbes vs Bloomberg
| Forbes Real-Time | Bloomberg Billionaires Index | |
|---|---|---|
| Public stock | Latest close × shares from SEC filings | Same |
| Options | Intrinsic value (price − strike) | Similar, tracked through litigation |
| Unvested / restricted awards | Excluded | Generally excluded; treats pledged shares as excluded too |
| Private companies | ~10% liquidity discount; one lump line | 5% liquidity discount |
| Taxes | None deducted | Deducted at the top rate unless shown otherwise |
| Debt | Known debt subtracted | No assumption about personal debt |
| Peak, June 16, 2026 | $1.45T (intraday) | $1.32T (close) |
Because more than 98% of the fortune is two listed stocks, the two trackers now sit within about $20B of each other on any given close (Aug 14: $880B vs $864B). They diverge when one counts the 286M restricted Tesla shares, the 350M SpaceX options, or pledged stock differently — and on peak days, when Forbes quotes intraday highs. FinanceFeeds Methodologies
This site's clock uses the Forbes share counts, so it lands on Forbes' number at the same prices. Switch on live quotes and it moves with the market during the day; Forbes updates after each close.
Pay, taxes and giving
- Salary: $0. Tesla must legally accrue a minimum-wage salary; he has never taken it. Realized 2025 pay per the proxy: $0.
- 2018 package: ~$55B at grant, voided by Delaware in January 2024, re-ratified by shareholders that June, restored by the Delaware Supreme Court in December 2025 and exercised for ~$116B in June 2026. Federal tax on the exercise could reach ~$45B; Texas residency saves ~$15B versus California.
- 2025 package: 423.7M shares, worth up to ~$1T if Tesla reaches $8.5T and every operating goal. Approved Nov 6, 2025 by more than 75% of votes cast.
- Taxes: In December 2021 he said he would pay “over $11 billion” for the year — the most of any American ever — after exercising expiring options. ProPublica reported he paid no federal income tax in 2018.
- Stock sales: ~$16B of Tesla in late 2021 (after the “sell 10%” poll) and ~$23B in 2022 to fund Twitter. No sales reported since.
- Giving: Giving Pledge signatory (2012); ~$5.7B of Tesla stock to charity in 2021 and ~$1.95B in 2022 (both to the Musk Foundation, which held >$14B at end-2024 and paid out under 5% a year); $100M XPrize for carbon removal; $55M to St. Jude. Oct 19, 2026: a pledge to give one SpaceX share to every American child in 2027.
- Politics: more than $291M in the 2024 cycle and about $443–450M in the 2026 midterms — spending, not charity.