Elon Musk becomes first person worth $700 billion after pay package ruling

Elon Musk’s net worth surged to about $749 billion late Friday following the ruling.

Updated on: Dec 21, 2025, 05:49:32 IST

By HT News Desk

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk became the first person to cross the $700 billion mark in net worth on Friday, after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Tesla stock options worth $139 billion that had been voided last year, according to Forbes’ Billionaires Index.

Elon Musk attends the Breakthrough Prize awards in Los Angeles, California. (REUTERS)

Musk’s net worth surged to about $749 billion late Friday following the ruling, which restored his 2018 pay package, once valued at $56 billion, two years after a lower court struck it down as “unfathomable.” The Supreme Court said a 2024 decision rescinding the compensation deal had been improper and inequitable to Musk.

Earlier this week, Musk became the first person ever to surpass $600 billion in net worth amid reports that his aerospace startup SpaceX was likely to go public.

In November, Tesla shareholders separately approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk - the largest corporate pay package in history - backing his vision of transforming the electric-vehicle maker into an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse.

Musk’s fortune now exceeds that of Larry Page, the world’s second-richest person, by nearly $500 billion, according to Forbes.

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