Elon Musk's fortune briefly jumped to a record $500 billion

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has seen his wealth pass a new milestone: he is officially halfway to becoming the first-ever trillionaire.

Shares in Tesla, Musk's EV company, gained nearly 4% as of 15.30 ET, which is 21.30 in Central Europe. That added an estimated $9.3 billion (€7.9bn) to his fortune, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires tracker.

The stock movement pushed Musk's wealth just above $500bn (€425.25bn) for a short period, although the moment was short-lived. Musk ended Wednesday worth an estimated $499.1bn.

The tech billionaire regularly makes headlines because of his staggering fortune. Worth just $24.6bn (€20.9bn) in March 2020, Musk had raked in $400bn (€340.4bn) by December 2024, earning the title 'the world's richest man' several times on the way.

Tesla is one of the most valuable tech companies in the world, with a market capitalisation of approximately $1.44 trillion (€1.23tr).

After Musk's foray into politics, the firm also appears to be regaining investors' trust as the CEO renews his focus on the company. Musk spent months in controversial political roles, supporting US President Donald Trump's campaign and the start of his term in office.

Tesla's shares have nearly doubled since April, when Musk announced that he would step back from political roles, and they rose gradually from $227.50 to above $459 on Wednesday.

To show his commitment to the company, Elon Musk recently bought more than 2.5 million Tesla shares, worth about $1bn (€850 million).

To many investors, this step demonstrated his confidence in the company's future, which could make him the world's first trillionaire.

In a more recent development, the Texas-based EV maker appears to have increased its European sales, where its performance had been lagging since Musk took an active role in US President Donald Trump's campaign.

Tesla's sales rose in several European markets in September, according to Reuters, citing local industry data.

A clearer picture of Tesla's performance will come on Thursday, when the EV maker reports global electric-vehicle deliveries. Investors expect approximately 443,000 deliveries for the last quarter.

Tesla isn’t the only company fuelling Musk's fortune. His rocket maker, SpaceX, is now worth $400bn (€340bn) based on a private tender offer in August, and he owns more than 40%, according to Forbes.

Musk also owns xAI Holdings, which was created by merging his AI company with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The transaction valued the combined company at $113bn (€96bn) and Musk holds just over half of the ownership.