Elon Musk is once again the world’s richest man on Forbes’ billionaires list, despite some financial hits and scrutiny he’s taken for serving the Trump administration.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump, who put Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), more than doubled his own net worth.
Forbes’ 39th annual World’s Billionaires list features 3,028 billionaires, which is the highest number since the ranking started in 1987. The list released on Tuesday has a record 15 individuals with 12-figure wealth, up one from last year.
The billionaires together have a $16.1trillion collective net worth.
Musk, who is a Tesla and SpaceX chief executive and owns X (formerly Twitter), grew his net worth by 75% to about $342billion. He is the first person ever to exceed $300billion in worth.
The DOGE head also retook the top spot on the list from Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of the world’s largest luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
Musk enjoyed a jump with new valuations for SpaceX and xAI, and Tesla stock climbing for 12 months. For the 2025 list, Musk did not take a big hit from Tesla stock taking its biggest plunge in the first three months of this year – 36% – since 2022.
DOGE’s recommendations to cut excess spending in the federal government have been unpopular among some Democrats and unions, and there have even been acts of violence against Tesla including shots fired at a dealership in Oregon last month.
Trump, whose 2024 campaign accepted more than $277million from Musk, last month bought a new Tesla on the White House driveway in a bid to boost Tesla’s tumbling sales and stocks.
The US president’s net worth grew to about $5.1billion with shares of the Trump Media & Technology Group and successful new cryptocurrency ventures. He ranks No 700 on the list.
‘Donald Trump has presided over the most lucrative post-presidency in American history, selling his supporters NFTs, coffee-table books and, most importantly, shares of a money-losing social-media venture,’ states the Forbes list.
In second place is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg worth $216billion, in third Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos worth $215billion, in fourth Oracle chairman Larry Ellison worth $192billion, and in fifth Arnault and his family worth $178billion.
‘It’s another record-breaking year for the world’s richest people, despite financial uncertainty for many and geopolitical tensions on the rise,’ stated Forbes Senior Editor of Wealth, Chase Peterson-Withorn.
‘And, from Elon Musk to Howard Lutnick and the other billionaires taking over the US government, they’re growing more and more powerful.’
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