The richest man in the world just got richer!
Elon Musk‘s fortune climbed $61 billion in a single day as shares in both his companies SpaceX and Tesla, surged. As of 2:15 pm (US time) on Friday, the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader’s net worth soared to $979.7 billion, witnessing a 6.64% jump from the previous day, according to Forbes.
Elon Musk’s net worth grew even more on Saturday
The tech titan’s estimated net worth climbed even higher to $981 billion with the Forbes list’s last update at 12:40 am EDT, October 3, 2026. The massive fortune update once again puts him within reach of his once-short-lived trillionaire status, which he briefly acquired after SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO in June.
Musk has long remained the uncontested richest billionaire on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list, defeating the likes of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google/Alphabet co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Dell Tech’s boss Michael Dell and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, among thousands of others, with a staggering multi-billion-dollar gap.
As of early Saturday (US time), the difference between Musk’s and Bezos’ estimated fortunes stood at $609.8 billion, and even that sum is far from the net worth boasted by the second-richest person in the world, as the Amazon icon is worth $371.2 billion, according to Forbes.
What powered the richest man’s net worth boom?
Musk’s financial luck played out hot on the heels of his unprecedented return to the Trump administration. Having renounced his DOGE-tied status as a special government employee in May 2025, the tech mogul made a major political comeback on the US warfare front this week.
In an eye-widening announcement two days ago, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that the SpaceX and Tesla chief executive had been tapped by the Pentagon alongside fellow billionaire and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to co-lead a new initiative dubbed Project Meridian.
Although describing the project as the “future of warfare,” Hegseth revealed that the initiative was not “about developing new strategies or new policies.” Instead, it aims to “identify the domains that we must conquer, and capabilities we must master.”
While the announcement generated quite the hype surrounding Musk’s name and put him back in the headlines alongside Donald Trump, who once referred to the billionaire mogul as his “First Buddy,” his companies’ shares rally was what helped to push him closer to the trillionaire threshold.
SpaceX shares went up over 7% to trade at $158.84 as of 2:15 p.m. EDT Friday, after the rocket-maker completed several successful launches, according to Forbes.
One of these missions revolved around four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13, who launched at 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station. Another success pointed to the aerospace giant’s Starship and Super Heavy megarocket, the biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, reaching orbit for the first time on September 28.
Similarly, Tesla’s stock soared around 5%, trading at $371.32 as of 2:15 p.m. EDT. This surge was, in turn, fuelled by the company posting 486,532 third-quarter deliveries, beating analysts’ expectations.
Vehicle sales still remain the company’s largest source of revenue even as Musk doubles down on AI, robotaxis and humanoid robots. With the new uptick in the quarterly number, the US EV giant is hoing to end two straight years of declining sales.