Rank 3
Elon Musk
196B
Tesla, SpaceX
Austin, Texas
United States
- Musk, who says he's worried about population collapse, has ten children with three women, including triplets and two sets of twins.
- As a kid in South Africa, Musk taught himself to code; he sold his first game, Blastar, for about $500.
- Elon Musk cofounded six companies, including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunneling startup Boring Company.
- He owns about 12% of Tesla excluding options, but has pledged more than half his shares as collateral for personal loans of up to $3.5 billion.
- In early 2024, a Delaware judge voided Musk's 2018 deal to receive options equaling an additional 9% of Tesla. Forbes has discounted the options by 50% pending Musk's appeal.
- SpaceX, founded in 2002, is worth nearly $180 billion after a December 2023 tender offer of up to $750 million; SpaceX stock has quintupled its value in four years.
- Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, after later trying to back out of the deal. He owns an estimated 74% of the company, now called X.
- Forbes estimates that Musk's stake in X is now worth nearly 70% less than he paid for it based on investor Fidelity's valuation of the company as of December 2023.