Elon Musk is about to rewrite human history: the final sprint toward a trillion-dollar fortune

2025 is becoming the most astonishing chapter in Elon Musk’s wealth empire. The tech giant’s net worth has rapidly climbed from a low at the beginning of the year to approximately $750 billion, just one step away from the trillion-dollar mark. This is not only a personal wealth surge but also an unprecedented single-year growth record in human economic history.

SpaceX’s Valuation Explosion and IPO Prospects

The core engine driving Musk’s wealth surge is not Tesla, but its subsidiary SpaceX. The private aerospace company’s valuation has skyrocketed from $350 billion to $800 billion in just one year, an increase of over 130%.

Musk holds about 40% of SpaceX shares, meaning that for every $100 billion increase in the company’s valuation, his net worth increases by approximately $40 billion. The main drivers behind this valuation surge are the steady growth of over 8 million Starlink users and market optimism about SpaceX’s potential in orbital AI data centers.

More critically, industry estimates suggest that if SpaceX launches an IPO, its valuation could reach $1.5 trillion. If this expectation materializes, the IPO alone could add about $300 billion to Musk’s wealth, enough to push him past the historic $1 trillion threshold.

Legal Turnaround in Tesla Compensation Case

Another wealth growth avenue stems from a legal turnaround regarding Tesla’s 2018 compensation reward. This incentive plan was dismissed by a Delaware court in 2024 but was overturned and reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2025. This ruling has significantly increased Musk’s options gains.

Interestingly, the current calculation of $750 billion does not include approximately 425 million new Tesla shares granted by shareholders in November 2025. If Musk manages to push Tesla’s market cap to $8.5 trillion, this reward alone would be worth $1 trillion—effectively creating an additional Musk empire for him.

Tesla’s 20% increase within the year has also contributed, but its value appreciation is far less impressive than SpaceX’s astonishing performance.

From Bottom to Peak: Market Reversal

Returning to early 2025, it’s hard to imagine Musk creating the most astonishing single-year wealth increase in human history. At that time, his net worth had fallen to $300 billion due to deteriorating relations with Trump, declining Tesla sales, and a bear market in Nasdaq.

However, with market recovery, deeper integration of xAI and X, and explosive growth in SpaceX’s business, the sentiment completely changed. In less than nine months, Musk’s wealth has increased more than fourfold.

What does this growth rate imply? Conservatively, Musk is gaining about $250 billion in wealth annually, equivalent to the entire net worth of Alphabet founder Larry Page. Using a more aggressive valuation, the annual increase could reach $400 billion—that’s like earning the average American household income every 7 seconds.

The Historical Significance of Wealth Scale

The approaching $1 trillion net worth is not just a numerical game. If his wealth reaches this level, it will account for about 3% of the US GDP, whereas John D. Rockefeller’s $10 billion net worth back then only accounted for about 2% of US GDP.

This reflects the rapid rise of tech capital’s weight in today’s economic structure and indicates that the wealth concentration among modern super-rich has far surpassed that of the industrial era. Through strategic布局 in SpaceX, Tesla, xAI, Starlink, and other sectors, Musk is reshaping the global economic landscape at an unprecedented speed. This chapter of human wealth history continues to be written at an accelerating pace.