Elon Musk is a trillionaire again—and he’d still be the richest person on the planet even if he gave everyone $90

Elon Musk is a trillionaire again following a surge in SpaceX stock. He’s the richest person in the world by a landslide—and even if he were to give everyone in the world a chunk of his fortune, he’d still top the billionaires list.

SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% on Monday. Morgan Stanley analysts even called the stock “cheap” at the day’s prices, emphasizing the potential of future AI product releases, progress on the launch vehicle Starship, and new neocloud contracts.

And as Musk owns around 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX—including another 1.3 billion shares of unvested restricted stock—his net worth shot up from $976.9 billion to $1.04 trillion afterward.

Now, the 55-year-old entrepreneur is so much richer than the rest of the world that even if he generously shared the spoils of his fortune, he’d still be the wealthiest by a mile.

There are roughly 8.3 billion people on earth, meaning that if Musk gave away $89.40 to everyone, he’d still hold a $298 billion net worth—around $1 billion higher than Google cofounder Larry Page, who is the second richest person in the world.

That means he could buy everyone on the planet a pair of Apple Airpods, a three-course dinner, or a nice pair of Levi’s jeans, and he’d still have plenty left to his name.

Musk and other billionaire fortunes are at the whim of the stock market

This isn’t the first time Musk has broken the wealth barrier and positioned himself in a league of his own: the world’s only trillionaire.

He first hit a 10-figure net worth in June, when SpaceX went public and its shares soared, making Musk the first person in history to surpass $1 trillion in wealth. But then SpaceX’s stock tumbled, dragging Musk’s fortune back below the trillion-dollar mark just two weeks after he first crossed it. Between June 16 and June 24, his fortune plummeted from $1.32 trillion to $957 billion, according to the Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Musk’s wealth continued to drop in the months ahead, hitting a low of $683.6 billion at the start of August. But his wealth has managed to bounce back thanks to the success of his assets. Aside from SpaceX, the tech mogul holds around $156.6 billion in wealth from his EV car company Tesla, another $13.1 billion in his infrastructure business The Boring Company, and $3.42 billion in Neuralink.

And he’s just one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs who have watched their net worths skyrocket and plummet at the whim of the stock market.

For a brief time last year, Oracle founder Larry Ellison dethroned Musk as the richest person in the world. The 82-year-old entrepreneur, who owns 40% of Oracle, experienced an eye-watering $101 billion wealth surge overnight following his business’s breakout earnings report that sent shares soaring by 36%. But the high was short-lived, and Ellison’s estimated net worth fell by $34 billion just two days following Oracle’s stock surge while Musk enjoyed a $35 billion gain, putting him back on top.

Michael Dell, who owns 40% of his tech company, gained around $122 billion between September this year and the same time in 2025, nearly doubling his wealth within the span of that year. Larry Page’s net worth has grown $16.3 billion in the same period, while Jeff Bezos watched his wealth surge $24.5 billion.

An $89.40 check would sustain the world’s poorest for 30 days

Forking over $90 would be a drop in the bucket for many of the ultra-rich like Musk, but for the average person, it’s a far more impactful sum.

More than half of American workers cannot comfortably cover a $500 emergency with cash on-hand, according to a 2026 research commissioned by SecureSave.

And more than 824 million people—representing about one in ten globally—lived on less than $3 a day in 2024, according to data this year from the World Bank.

In fact, a $89.40 check would be able to sustain the world’s poorest individuals for 30 days: an entire month’s worth of income for those living in extreme poverty.

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