Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has reclaimed the top spot in Forbes’ annual billionaire rankings, boasting an eye-popping net worth of $342 billion.
Forbes announced on Tuesday that 3,028 individuals made it onto this year’s global billionaires list—247 more than last year. Collectively, their wealth surpasses $16 trillion.
Musk, who has been featured on the Forbes list for 14 consecutive years, overtook Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods conglomerate Moët Hennessy·Louis Vuitton S.A. (LVMH), who held the No. 1 position last year. Arnault has since dropped to fifth place, with a net worth of $178 billion.
Musk’s fortune grew by 75% over the past year, fueled by strong stock performances from Tesla and SpaceX. However, recent political developments have caused Tesla shares to slide, leading to a $52 billion dip in his net worth.
Tesla’s stock reached a high of $479.86 on December 17, shortly after Donald Trump’s election victory. Following Trump’s second inauguration and Musk’s high-profile association with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the stock price plummeted by more than 45%, closing at $263.55 on March 28.
Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed second place with a net worth of $216 billion, narrowly ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at $215 billion. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison followed with an estimated wealth of $192 billion.
Other notable tech figures include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, ranked 13th with $108 billion, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who placed 16th with $98.7 billion.
Newsweek noted that Musk is likely to maintain his lead, given his $100 billion advantage over Zuckerberg and cautioned that mounting public criticism of Tesla could pose challenges to Musk’s continued growth.
