Last week, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, meaning that he would be able to pay every person on the planet if he split his eye-watering wealth equally.

The recent success of his company SpaceX's Initial Public Offering (IPO), combined with his many other money-making schemes, has triggered Musk's net worth to soar past $1.4 trillion. While millions of people on the planet are still starving, Musk’s wealth has grown approximately four times since the start of 2025.

Most of Musk’s money is held in stocks and investments, so there is a comparatively lower figure available to him in liquid cash, although it is still probably more than enough to buy entire towns.

What does being a trillionaire involve?

He has enough money to buy the most expensive piece of art ever sold, Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million, roughly 3,109 times over.

Musk’s wealth also matches the market cap of massive companies like Meta, Walmart, and Ozempic manufacturer Eli Lily.

Elon Musk is the richest person to exsist. Credit: Jared Siskin / Getty Images

If the world’s richest person divided his fortune between the earth’s 8.3 billion people, every person on the planet would receive a payout of $169.

Although it does not sound like a huge figure, and certainly would not go far if you were trying to buy a Tesla, it paints a picture of the staggering amount of wealth possessed by one man.

If the billionaire decided just to split the fortune among the population of the United States, that would mean that every one of the 342.6 million people across the nation would receive about $4,086, which for a large portion of people would be a life-changing amount. It could be the deposit needed to purchase a property, or a new car to take their children to school.

Musk's company Tesla makes cars that cost upwards of $100,000. Credit: UCG / Getty Images

How long would it take to make the amount of money Musk has?

For an ordinary person on a salary of $100,000 a year, it would take working for 14 million years to earn what Musk currently has.

Unsurprisingly, the person who could single-handedly end world hunger chose to ignore the United Nations calculations on how to eradicate food poverty.

The international body worked out that it would cost $93 billion annually for the next four years to completely end world hunger. The sum, $372 billion, is only around a quarter of Musk's current net worth.

Featured image credit: Chesnot / Getty Images

Elon Musk has appealed to the public for ways to donate his vast fortune after officially becoming the richest man in the world.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has just overtaken Amazon's Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $188 billion (£138 billion), according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.

This makes the billionaire the richest person in the world, and now Musk has asked the internet for inspiration about how he can put his huge estate to good use.

In a tweet addressed to his 41.6 million followers on Twitter, Musk wrote:

"Btw, critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems) [sic]"

The post quickly went viral on social media, accruing over 7,00 retweets, and more than 151,000 likes from other Twitter users. Not only that, but Musk's post was quickly inundated with comments and suggestions.

Some Twitter users sincerely shared organizations that they thought would benefit from Musk's support:

...While others gave more tongue-in-cheek answers instead:

Meanwhile, Bezos himself has pledged to donate $10 billion (£7.6 billion) to help stop climate change and save the planet. In a lengthy Instagram post Bezos wrote:

"I've spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who've made it their life's work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world.

"I'm inspired by what they’re doing, and excited to help them scale. Today, I'm pleased to announce the first Bezos Earth Fund recipients - 16 organizations working on innovative, ambitious, and needle-moving solutions."

He added: "This $791 million in donations is just the beginning of my $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and others. We can all protect Earth’s future by taking bold action now."

Bezos then stated that he intended on giving money to The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, and The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, among many others.

Elon Musk is the richest man on the planet, but what will happen to his fortune when he passes away?

No matter how much money you have, one day we all have to bid farewell to the world - even billionaires.

When that day comes, their children, partners, and chosen heirs are poised for life-changing windfalls: sprawling property empires, controlling stakes in high-profile companies, and bank accounts that could make even the most hardened Wall Street titan weep.

And, as anyone who’s watched Succession knows, the bigger the fortune, the juicier the potential for family drama.

And while some billionaires have promised to give away most of their fortunes, others have stayed quiet.

But what has Elon Musk done?

At the time of writing, Forbes has Musk's net worth at $411 billion, making him the richest man alive.

Like many ultra-wealthy billionaires, the Tesla CEO has signed the Giving Pledge, per Business Insider.

But in practice, he’s been slow to part with his billions, saying most donations will not happen until nearly 2040, when Tesla reaches a “steady state” (and when Musk will be nearing 70).

If he dies before then, his heirs could inherit tens of billions in Tesla stock.

What would happen to Tesla without Musk is another question entirely.

The $1 trillion company is worth more than its five biggest rivals combined, but much of Tesla’s identity is tied to Musk’s larger-than-life persona.

Without him to drive the narrative, the person inheriting his stake in Tesla may find their shares worth far less than Musk’s own headline-making billions.

Unlike many billionaires, Musk doesn’t have a sprawling property empire to leave behind.

What happens to the social media platform X is unknown, but it'll definitely have a noticeable change after Musk's death due to how hands-on the South African is.

Musk’s personal life is complex enough to make Logan Roy of Succession sweat.

He has two ex-wives - author Justine Wilson and actress Talulah Riley - and is currently single after his split from singer Grimes in 2021.

He has 14 known children, meaning his inheritance will be split quite a few times, although he isn't exactly on talking terms with some of his kids.

But his death is probably a long way off, and if his recent posts on X are anything to go by, he's fairly healthy.

In response to the swirl of speculation, Musk posted drug test results from United States Drug Testing Laboratories on June 17, showing negative results for substances like ketamine, cocaine, methadone, fentanyl, and opiates.

This comes after Donald Trump referred to him as a "big-time drug addict."

Featured image credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty

Elon Musk has broken another record by becoming the first person to ever lose $200 billion from his net worth.

The billionaire Tesla founder, 51, was only the second person in the world to have amassed personal wealth over $200 billion in 2021, after Jeff Bezos.

Musk's net worth peaked at $340 billion in November 2021, but the past year has not been kind to his stellar bank balance after his wealth plummeted to a measly $137 billion.

Champagne problems, huh?

According to Bloomberg, Musk is the only person so far to have managed to knock $200 billion off his net worth, following a dire year for Tesla.

The electric car firm's shared have also plunged 65% in the past year, making it the company's worst year to date.

According to reports from the New York Post, the decline included an 11% decrease on Tuesday alone after a rise in Covid cases forced Tesla to put production on hold temporarily in Shanghai, China.

In a memo obtained by CNBC, Musk reportedly told his staff: "Don’t be too bothered by stock market craziness. As we demonstrate continued excellent performance, the market will recognize that.”

Musk also lost another title recently, after being replaced as the world's richest person by Bernard Arnault, who is co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world's largest luxury goods company.

His recent losses come after Tesla and Musk's success soared during the pandemic, with the electric car brand having been valued at over $1 trillion by October 2021 according to Bloomberg, despite owning just a small part of the EV market.

Musk also famously bought Twitter for $44 billion this year - with that takeover again having mixed results with users.

As well as controversially reinstating people that had previously been banned from the site - including former US president Donald Trump - and ripping up the rule book for blue "verified" check marks, his time at the reins has been dominating headlines.

He had marked his arrival as Twitter's CEO in October 2022 by tweeting a photo of him carrying a sink into the offices on his first day, accompanied by the dad joke: "Let that sink in."

Shortly afterward, Musk axed senior executives as well as half of the workforce, before bringing in a scheme allowing users to pay $8 a month to get a coveted blue check of their own on their profile, claiming it was to clamp down on spam and bot accounts.

Featured image credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy

A man briefly became the world's wealthiest individual after a whopping $92 quadrillion was accidentally put in his PayPal account.

Most of us can only dream of one day being millionaires, so the thought of how much a quadrillion is - or, indeed, 92 quadrillion - is barely fathomable.

But one man found out what it was like to have that much wealth in his account - albeit only for a short time - thanks to a banking error.

Back in 2013, Chris Reynolds, a then-56-year-old resident of Pennsylvania, was left stunned after he opened his bank account and discovered that he was a whole lot richer.

PayPal unintentionally added a staggering sum of $92,233,720,368,547,800 into his account - which meant that for a few minutes, he was the only person on the planet who could claim to be a quadrillionaire.

PayPal unintentionally added a staggering sum of $92,233,720,368,547,800 into his account. Credit: SOPA Images / Getty

Reynolds would've surpassed the wealth of Tech mogul Elon Musk, whose current net worth is an estimated $388 billion, Mark Zuckerberg whose net worth is $236 billion, and Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $223 billion, per Forbes.

According to the Daily Mail, Reynolds, who sells auto parts in his spare time, was worried as he thought he owed someone trillions. He shared the bank statement on Facebook to try to find answers, where someone pointed out that the figure was listed under "credit" not "debit".

But, he quickly found out that it was a glitch on PayPal's end when he logged back into his bank account to find the balance had gone down to $0.

The online money-transfer company acknowledged its mistake and promptly withdrew the incorrectly credited funds. However, they donated an undisclosed amount of money to a charitable organization of Reynolds' choosing to compensate for the financial debacle.

"This is obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understood this was the case," PayPal said in a statement, obtained by the outlet. "We think it's inspiring that he decided to use this occurrence to donate to a cause he believes in.

"And we hope to honor this spirit by donating to a cause of his choice – we've reached out to him to make this offer and to let him know we are grateful that he's a customer!", they added.

Reynolds logged back into his PayPal account and saw that his balance was $0. Credit: Newscast / Getty

In an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News in 2013, cited by Daily Mail, Reynolds opened up about the mind-blowing moment, stating: "At first I thought that I owned quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."

Reynolds then revealed that would've spent the eye-watering cash to "pay the national debt down" and then "buy" the Philadelphia Phillies, an American Professional baseball team based in Philadelphia.

He said he would've put forward a "great price," which would've been well within his range as the team has an estimated value of $2.58 billion.

Thankfully, Reynolds found the ordeal humorous, saying it could have happened because "someone was having fun".

Featured image credit: SOPA Images / Getty