The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, is on his way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire. With a $500,000,000,000 net worth, the EV mogul has outshone both Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos combined.
This comes after a sudden boom in Tesla’s stock price and Musk’s rekindled support for US President Donald Trump. Briefly serving as the Chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk enjoyed his share of the bureaucracy. Backing Trump in the 2024 Presidential elections, Musk shelled out $288 million for the Republican campaign.
Musk’s political pockets
Elon Musk also founded America PAC to further Trump’s campaign, which carried out canvassing operations. It involved making a $11.2 million contribution in December 2024. The organisation had over 5000 door-to-door canvassers in the seven largest states in the US.
Musk’s incessant efforts were one of the major factors, Trump returned the second time to the White House. However, Musk was a mutual benefactor at his end, despite the millions he “invested” in Trump’s campaign. At the same time, several authorities have raised their doubts about Musk’s strategic actions and Trump’s public support for Tesla.
Donations to charity
Besides Trump, Elon Musk has also made several donations to charity through his foundation via cash. After a report from the New York Times, the Musk Foundation announced that it will donate $20 million to Cameron County, a SpaceX launch site. The compensation was promised to be given to schools, along with a $10 million donation to the City of Brownsville.
On the other hand, several claims also revealed that Musk’s charitable foundation failed to give away the minimum 5% of the fair market value of his endowment required by law, donating $160 million in 2022, $234 million less than required.
‘X’ factor
Elon musk also famously retired Twitter’s bird in 2022 for a $44 billion deal. This came a year after Trump was a banned user on Twitter afte the Capitol Riot in January 2021. Advocating free speech, Musk raised the concern of banning users.
Rebranding it to X, Musk gradually ventured into the space of artificial intelligence and launched xAI or Grok. The AI startup was a direct competitor of Sam Altman’s ChatGPT and is now worth nearly £55 billion.
$140 million palaces on wheels
Musk is one of the richest owners of a private plane, joining the list of billionaires like Trump, Taylor Swift, Mukesh Ambani, Kim Kardashian, and more.
And it’s not one, but two of them. Also known as the luxurious G6, Musk is the owner of two Gulfstream jets worth $70 million each. According to JetSpy, Musk has reportedly taken more than 350 flights in 2024, alone.