Elon Musk becomes first person ever worth $500 billion

Tesla boss Elon Musk has become the first person in history to reach a personal net worth of more than half a trillion dollars. 

As stocks in the electric car company rose in New York trading on Wednesday, Musk’s fortune briefly stood at $500.1 billion dollars, before falling back to $499 billion in later trading. The tech mogul owns more than 12 percent of the car and clean energy multinational. 

Tesla’s stock has soared by more than 20 percent since the start of the year, despite a bumpy start due to blowback over Musk's affiliation with US President Trump.

Musk's other businesses, including space technology company Space X and artificial intelligence startup xAI have also risen. 

Musk has long been at the top of the world’s rich list. Oracle founder Larry Ellison briefly surpassed him last month when shares in Oracle rose by 43 percent, boosted by huge demand for its cloud computing services. 

Last month, the Tesla board proposed a one trillion dollar compensation package for Musk if the company hits the target market value of more than $8.5 trillion - more than eight times its current worth - over the next decade.