Elon Musk has taken another major step on the path toward becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Earlier this month, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX made a tender offer that valued the company at up to $800 billion—double its $400 billion valuation in August this year.

This move triggered a massive surge in Musk’s personal wealth. Musk owns approximately 42% of SpaceX, meaning his net worth climbed to around $677 billion at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, an increase of $168 billion. As a result, he became the first individual in history to surpass $600 billion in net worth, while no one before him had ever reached the $500 billion mark.

The tender offer comes as SpaceX is preparing for a potential initial public offering (IPO) in 2026. According to one of the company’s investors, SpaceX’s valuation could reach approximately $1.5 trillion by that time.

Even without factoring in the potential IPO valuation, this scenario alone would make Musk a trillionaire if it materializes. According to Forbes estimates, Musk’s SpaceX stake is currently worth $336 billion, making it his most valuable asset. By comparison, his 12% stake in Tesla is currently worth $197 billion—a figure that does not include stock options from his 2018 CEO performance-based compensation plan.

Those options were ruled invalid by a Delaware judge in January 2024. Forbes has since discounted the value of those options by 50%, valuing them at $69 billion, with the final value depending on the outcome of Musk’s appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court regarding the ruling.

If Musk loses the appeal, Tesla could still provide him with another path to becoming a trillionaire. In November, Tesla shareholders approved a record-breaking compensation package: Musk could receive additional shares worth up to $1 trillion (pre-tax and before accounting for vesting costs on restricted stock) if Tesla achieves ambitious “moonshot” performance targets—such as increasing its market capitalization more than eightfold—over the next decade.

In addition, Musk’s xAI Holdings is reportedly negotiating a new funding round valuing the company at $230 billion. This figure is more than double the $113 billion valuation Musk announced in March when he merged his artificial intelligence startup xAI with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to form xAI Holdings. Forbes estimates that Musk owns 53% of xAI Holdings, currently worth approximately $60 billion.

Surpassing the $600 billion net worth threshold is just the latest milestone in a series of wealth achievements Musk has reached over the past five years. In March 2020, his net worth stood at just $24.6 billion. By August of that year, fueled by Tesla’s surging stock price, he became the fifth person in history to exceed $100 billion in net worth.

In January 2021, Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time with a net worth of nearly $190 billion. By September 2021, he became the third person in history to reach $200 billion in net worth, following Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and luxury conglomerate LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.

Since then, Musk has surpassed $300 billion in November 2021, $400 billion in December 2024, and crossed the $500 billion mark in October 2024. (Oracle founder Larry Ellison is the only individual besides Musk to have reached both the $300 billion and $400 billion net worth levels.)

Today, Musk is closer to becoming a trillionaire than to losing his title as the world’s richest person. He currently holds a $425 billion lead over Google co-founder Larry Page, whose net worth stands at approximately $252 billion. And with only $23 billion separating him from the $700 billion milestone, Musk’s next major wealth landmark may arrive sooner than expected.