By ABC News
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Elon Musk has become the world’s first half-trillionaire, Forbes magazine reported on Wednesday.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s net worth hit $US500.1 billion ($755 billion) on Wednesday, before dipping back to $US499.1 billion, the publication’s “Real-Time Billionaires” tracker reported.
Mr Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time four years ago, but briefly lost his title this September to Larry Ellison, the co-founder of information technology company Oracle.
Mr Ellison’s wealth surged to $US393 billion ($593 billion), surpassing Mr Musk’s $US385 billion at the time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The jump came after shares in Oracle soared more than 40 per cent following billion-dollar AI deals made with companies such as OpenAI, Meta and Nvidia.
Mr Musk has again overtaken Mr Ellison, whose net worth is now $US350.7 billion.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford University, Mr Musk banked his first millions when he sold an online publishing software company, Zip2, to US computer-maker Compaq for more than $US300 million ($450 million) in 1999.
His next company was an online bank that eventually merged with PayPal.
After leaving that venture, the South African-born tech entrepreneur founded the space rocket company, SpaceX, in 2002 and became the CEO of Tesla in 2008.
