Elon Musk is a billionaire again – and he’d still be the richest person even if he gave everyone $90

SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% on Monday. Analysts at Morgan Stanley even called the stock “cheap” at today’s price, highlighting the potential for future AI product releases, progress on the Starship launcher and new Neocloud contracts.

And because Musk owns approximately 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX stock — including 1.3 billion unvested restricted shares — his net worth subsequently increased from $976.9 billion to $1.04 trillion.

Today, the 55-year-old entrepreneur is so much richer than the rest of the world that even if he shared his fortune generously, he would still be by far the richest.

There are about 8.3 billion people on Earth, which means that if Musk gave everyone $89.40, he would still have a net worth of $298 billion, about $1 billion more than Google co-founder 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 still have plenty left to his name.

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

This is not the first time that Musk has broken the wealth barrier and positioned himself in a category of his own: the only billionaire in the world.

He first reached 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 shares fell, bringing Musk’s fortune back below the $1 trillion mark just two weeks after he first crossed it. Between June 16 and 24, his fortune fell from $1.32 trillion to $957 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Elon Musk’s wealth continued to decline over the coming months, reaching a low of $683.6 billion in early August. But his fortune managed to rebound, thanks to the success of his assets. Besides SpaceX, the tech mogul holds about $156.6 billion in wealth from his electric car maker 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 has seen his net worth soar and fall with the whims of the stock market.

For a brief period last year, Oracle founder Larry Ellison dethroned Musk as the world’s richest person. The 82-year-old entrepreneur, who owns 40% of Oracle, saw his wealth increase by $101 billion overnight following his company’s earnings report that sent shares up 36%. But that peak was short-lived, and Ellison’s estimated net worth fell by $34 billion just two days after Oracle’s shares rose, while Musk enjoyed a $35 billion gain, putting him back at the top.

Michael Dell, who owns 40% of his technology company, earned about $122 billion between September this year and the same period in 2025, almost doubling his wealth in that year. Larry Page’s net worth increased by $16.3 billion during the same period, while Jeff Bezos’s saw his wealth increase by $24.5 billion.

A check for $89.40 would allow the poorest to survive for 30 days

Paying more than $90 would be a drop in the ocean for many ultra-rich like Musk, but for the average person, it’s a much larger sum.

More than half of American workers can’t easily cover a $500 emergency with their cash, according to a 2026 study commissioned by SecureSave.

And more than 824 million people, or about one in ten people worldwide, were living on less than $3 a day in 2024, according to World Bank data released this year.

In fact, a check for $89.40 would provide for the world’s poorest individuals for 30 days, the equivalent of an entire month’s income for those living in extreme poverty.