Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has seen his asset value surpass $600 billion, putting him on the verge of claiming the world's first "trillionaire" title.
On the 15th (local time), the U.S. business magazine Forbes said that reflecting the recent internal share sale in which SpaceX, the unlisted space company founded and run by Musk, was valued at $800 billion, Musk's asset value is estimated at $677 billion (about 995.5 trillion won), up $168 billion from before.
SpaceX's corporate value assessment doubled in about four months from $400 billion in Aug., and Musk is known to hold about 42% equity in SpaceX. If SpaceX, which is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) next year, actually lists, its corporate value could reach about $1.5 trillion.
Forbes projected that even if SpaceX does not achieve that level of value at its IPO, Musk's asset value is highly likely to exceed $1 trillion (about 1,470.5 trillion won) upon listing.
Musk is likely to become the first "trillionaire," following his status as the first person in world history to hold more than $600 billion in assets. The gap in assets between Musk and Larry Page, the Google co-founder ranked No. 2 in the world by Forbes, amounts to $425 billion.
Earlier, Tesla passed a plan last month to grant up to $1 trillion worth of additional stock if Musk achieves key management milestones, such as raising Tesla's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion over the next 10 years. The value of xAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) development startup founded and run by Musk, is also rising.