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Elon Musk's Net Worth Just Dropped by $6 Billion

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 10, 2025 8:45 am

Elon Musk has a lot going on. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) just released an upscale car for China. His xAI released a new chatbot to compete with OpenAI. His rocket company SpaceX is about to launch its new Starship model. And he is helping run the U.S. government. In the meantime, his net worth has been slipping this year. The world’s richest man has lost $6.4 billion so far in 2025. That brings the total to only $426 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index

What’s Up With Tesla?

The net worth slip is likely due to the market cap of Tesla, which has declined 3% in 2025. However, over the past year, it is still up 68%. Its market cap sits at $1.27 trillion. The electric vehicle (EV) maker still has challenges, though.

Tesla’s recently released numbers for 2024 reflect low demand for EVs in the United States. Deliveries declined by just over 1.1% to 1.8 million. A similar problem is happening at Ford, GM, and most other large legacy car companies too. Americans still worry about the number of charging stations, charging time, and high prices for new EVs. Tesla continues to do well in China, which is the world’s largest EV market in the world by far. However, it has stiff competition there as well.

Tesla’s market cap, and Musk’s wealth, continues to ride on the fact that many investors view the company as an artificial intelligence (AI) play. Tesla’s self-driving function has improved over the years. Musk says that his vehicles will soon become completely autonomous and will not need drivers at all.

Elon’s Companies

Musk’s net worth is based primarily on his ownership of three companies. The first is Tesla, the share price of which is up 53% in the past year. He owns 20.5% of the company.

SpaceX virtually controls the U.S. rocket business and is the leader in the industry worldwide. It has established itself as the preeminent rocket launch provider, lofting satellites, cargo, and people to space for NASA, the Pentagon, and commercial partners. It is building out a large network of Starlink satellites providing internet service.

Musk owns 42% of SpaceX and has 79% of the company’s voting shares. He can make decisions about SpaceX without challenge. SpaceX was recently valued at $350 billion.

Among Musk’s other holdings, the most valuable may eventually be xAI, a major rival to OpenAI in the race to control the future of AI. xAI recently raised $6 billion, which puts its value at between $40 billion and $50 billion. Musk owns over half of xAI. The valuation of OpenAI recently hit $157 billion.

Musk owns parts of several other companies, including social media platform X and implantable brain-computer interface operation Neuralink.

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