Elon Musk is now worth more than the next three richest billionaires combined, the latest calculations from Forbes show.
The Forbes Real Times Billionaires List has placed Musk firmly in the position of richest man in the world, with an estimated worth of $839 billion – up from $342 billion last year.
The enormous growth of the 54-year-old’s personal wealth is driven by rising valuations at Tesla and SpaceX, two of the seven major companies he founded.
The next three richest people in the world are Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, followed by Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon.
Economist Gabriel Zucman estimates that if the world’s 3,428 billionaires spent all of their money, they would be able to buy 17% of everything produced in a year globally.
In 1987, when Forbes started compiling its billionaires list, Zucman says that figure was only at 3%.
“It’s time to tax billionaires,” said the French economist on X. “With the growth in the wealth of global billionaires has come an upsurge in their power. The power to shape policy, to buy elections, to influence the prevailing ideology, to buy competitors, to tilt markets at their advantage.”
Musk was the single largest donor to far-right US president Donald Trump’s election campaign, donating $277 million.
Zucman notes that the sheer number of billionaires is also steadily increasing. Forbes filed 390 new entries this year, including Beyoncé and Dr Dre.
“It is for citizens, throughout the world, to ask their elected representatives to act now,” said Zucman. “It is time to tax billionaires.”
Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.
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