Elon Musk is on the verge of becoming the first ever trillionaire, but he wasn't always at the top of our annual
#ForbesBillionaires list.
It wasn’t long ago that Musk overtook Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to rank No. 1 on our global billionaires list for the first time ever, in 2022, with an estimated $219 billion fortune.
Musk’s reign didn’t last long back then: he dropped to No. 2 behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault on both our 2023 and 2024 rankings.
Even last year, when Musk reclaimed the top spot with an estimated $342 billion fortune, he was still only $126 billion richer than his runner-up at the time, Mark Zuckerberg.
Now, Musk is truly in a league of his own and the prospect of him ever being overtaken again as the world’s richest person seems increasingly less likely.
Read more about the world’s richest person at the link in our bio.