Wealth history
From a $22 million cheque in 1999 to the first trillion-dollar fortune in 2026 — and the biggest single-day gain and the biggest loss ever recorded along the way.
Forbes list value, year by year
Fifteen years, three orders of magnitude.
Values as published on the annual Forbes World's Billionaires list each spring, plus the Oct 31, 2026 real-time figure. The June 2026 peak ($1.32T on Bloomberg's close, $1.45T intraday on Forbes) sits above the chart. Year-by-year list Wealth of Elon Musk
$22 million
Compaq buys Zip2, the online city-guide company Elon founded with his brother Kimbal, for $307M. Elon's 7% is worth $22M. He is 27.
$176 million
eBay buys PayPal for $1.5B; as the largest shareholder (11.7%) Musk clears about $176M before tax — then puts $100M into a rocket company nobody believes in.
Broke, on paper
With Tesla and SpaceX both days from failure, he puts in his last $40M and says he is living on loans from friends. “The worst year of my life.” NASA's $1.6B contract arrives Dec 23.
$2 billion — first Forbes list
Ranked #634 after Tesla's IPO (2010) and SpaceX's first Dragon flight. Signs the Giving Pledge.
$20 billion and a bet
Tesla grants the 2018 CEO award: 12 tranches of options worth nothing unless Tesla grows from $59B to $650B. It is derided as impossible.
The surge
Starts the year around $27B; Tesla rises ~700% and he ends it at ~$170B, passing Zuckerberg and Gates.
Richest person on Earth
Passes Jeff Bezos on the Bloomberg index. In November he becomes the first person above $300B, then sells ~$16B of Tesla after a Twitter poll.
−$200 billion
Tesla falls 65% in the year of the $44B Twitter purchase. Guinness later certifies the largest personal fortune loss in history.
$400 billion
A SpaceX tender at $350B and a post-election Tesla rally make him the first person past $400B. Bloomberg peak: ~$439B on Dec 17.
−$34 billion in a day
The public feud with President Trump sends Tesla down 14% — Bloomberg's second-largest one-day loss ever at the time.
$500 billion
First person to the half-trillion mark, on Forbes.
$700 billion
The Delaware Supreme Court restores the 2018 pay package (~$139B); SpaceX runs a tender at $800B.
$800 billion
SpaceX acquires xAI in an all-stock deal valuing the combination at $1.25T; Musk's xAI stake converts into SpaceX stock.
The first trillionaire
SpaceX lists on Nasdaq at $135 and closes at $161. Musk's ~6.4 billion shares are marked to market: above $1.1T on Bloomberg.
+$164 billion in one day — the peak
The largest single-day gain ever recorded for any person. The next day: $1.32T (Bloomberg close) or $1.45T (Forbes intraday) as SpaceX touches $225.64.
−$750 billion — the largest loss ever
SpaceX falls 52% from its peak. Forbes puts him at $695.7B; he changes his X bio to “(Former) trillionaire.”
Trillionaire again
+$65B in a day as SpaceX rallies 58% from its August low; Bloomberg: $1.04T.
Back below
The SpaceX lock-up expiry and a sell-off take the stock under its IPO price. Forbes, Oct 31: $868.5B.
The records
Largest one-day gain ever, June 15, 2026 (Bloomberg)
Largest loss ever: June 16 → July 27, 2026, −52% (Forbes)
Guinness World Record, Nov 2021 → Dec 2022
June 5, 2025 — the Trump feud day
Oct 5, 2026, re-crossing $1T
Share of US GDP at the June peak