Elon Musk Net Worth, Crypto and NFT Investments

Born on June 28, 1971, Elon Reeve Musk is a prominent business mogul and investor. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes’ real-time billionaire list, Elon Musk is the second richest person on earth with the majority of his net worth coming from his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. At one point in 2021, he was ranked first. As of March 2024, Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated to be around $210.5 billion.

Elon Musk moved to Canada from Pretoria, South Africa at the age of 18 gaining the country’s citizenship through his Canadian Mother. His academic journey saw him through Queen’s University, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University. Musk dropped out of school in 1995 to co-found the online city guide software firm; Zip2. From there, the billionaire began his journey of acquiring more riches.

Companies that Contribute to Elon Musk’s Net Worth

Tesla Inc – $404.56 billion (up to $1 trillion)

Elon Musk began his Tesla journey through a Series A funding round which he led in February 2004. Thereafter, Musk invested $6.5 million in Tesla, thus becoming the major shareholder. He emerged as the chairman of the firm’s board of directors. The shares of the automobile firm soared when Tesla began producing electric sports cars in 2008.

Tesla made history in 2021 through its Model 3 electric car which sold 1 million units globally. It is noteworthy that the car is the first electric vehicle to record such a feat.

This feat paved the way for Tesla’s shares to soar. In 2020, it emerged as the most valuable automobile firm. By October 2021, the firm attained a $1 trillion market capitalization. The value of Tesla shares soared so high that when Elon Musk sold 10% of his holdings in the firm, he pocketed $16.4 billion.

Elon Musk benefited more from the soaring of Tesla’s shares. Then, the board of directors initiated a mouthwatering package worth about $56 billion for him. However, the package came with a condition that Musk must continue meet some performance goals. This package at a time, contributed massively to Elon Musk’s $300 billion net worth.

SpaceX – $150 billion

The idea of SpaceX was conceived by Elon Musk in 2001 when he developed interest in designing funding plans to dispatch a growth chamber for plants on Mars. To achieve this idea, Elon Musk met with various organizations before he had a clear vision of wanting to set up a company that could engineer cheap rockets. SpaceX came into life in May 2002 after Musk invested $100 million into the project.

At first, the company struggled to successfully launch a rocket into space. However, when things began to go right for SpaceX, the firm began to win contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to resupply the International Space Station. The most recent of these contracts is worth $2.9 billion, requiring the firm to build a spacecraft for sending astronauts to the moon.

In 2012, SpaceX got a $82 million contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), launching a satellite 2012 to monitor global sea levels and oceanic circulation. Majorly, SpaceX made most of its revenue from commercial service deliveries. Each delivery using the Falcon 9 rocket is advertised at $62 million.

In August 2022, the value of the company soared massively, adding more to Elon Musk’s net worth After an injection of $250 million from Korean investors, thereafter the company is worth around $150 billion. In total, SpaceX has secured more than $2 billion in investment capital as of 2022 due to Elon Musk’s visionary ideas and leadership.

Twitter – $44 billion

Before his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk was prominent on the microblogging app as an active figure owing to his consistent advocacy of free speech. He began investing in Twitter in January 2022, and by March he already became the largest shareholder in the social networking site. The news soared Twitter’s stock by 27%.

Elon Musk conceived the initiative of acquiring Twitter the following month. He made an offer at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $44 billion. The billionaire had the intention of making Twitter a private company with the intention of giving room for free speech as Musk believes it’s a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022

On April 15, 2022, the Twitter board adopted the poison pill provision to make the takeover deal expensive for Elon Musk to acquire. The pill allowed Twitter stockholders to purchase more shares at a cheaper rate, diluting the shares controlled by Musk. However, the board explained that it’s part of its administrative policy to trigger the pill if any individual or organization purchases up to 15% of Twitter’s shares.

Ten days later, the parties agreed to an Elon Musk Twitter takeover deal. Though, the Billionaire had to sell $8.5 billion worth of his Tesla stock to finance the deal. However, the deal suffered a major setback in May when Elon Musk temporarily delayed it over Bot concerns.

The billionaire argued that the Twitter Board was not transparent with the number of Bots on the platform. Against that, the Twitter Board argued that it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions spelt out in the acquisition deal.

Thereafter, Elon Musk attempted to pull out of the deal citing the Bot issue. This move triggered a lawsuit from other Twitter Stockholders who prayed that the Court mandates Musk to pay a compensation of $1 billion to abandon the deal. On October 28, 2022, Elon Musk completed the takeover process at the agreed price of $44 billion.

A few months after the completion of the deal, Musk began the rebranding of Twitter into X and eventually merged Twitter Inc. into a newly established company known as XCorp. The merger laid the foundation for the total rebranding of Twitter into X around July 2023. 

Meanwhile, findings indicated that the rebranding effort is due to Elon Musk’s fondness for the letter X and it is also a commercial attempt to make the platform a super app that offers a variety of services. The rebranding comes with new developments like remuneration for content creators and subscriptions to exclusive services on the platform. 

NeuraLink and Starlink – $40 billion

Alongside seven scientists and engineers, Elon Musk founded Neuralink in 2016. The group consisted of experts in various fields such as neuroscience, biochemistry, and robotics. The firm unveiled its intention of treating severe brain diseases with the use of technological devices. In the long run, Neuralink focuses on human enhancement, otherwise known as transhumanism.

The world had an insight into Elon Musk’s Neuralink first prototype in 2019. During a live presentation at the California Academy of Sciences, the Neuralink team unveiled a system that uses an ultra-thin probe to get into the human brain without drilling holes.

During the process, a neurosurgical robot was tasked to perform the operation. Recently, the firm secured $205 million in a series C funding round with participation from top investors. Elon Musk owns a 100% stake in Neuralin and the company is worth about $1 billion.

The Boring Company (TBC)

The Boring Company (TBC) is also on the list of notable firms founded by Elon Musk. Based in America, the company focuses on construction of infrastructure and tunnel to aid underground transportation system. According to its billionaire founder, the Boring Company aims to decongest traffic with the introduction of tunnels to convey electric vehicles to their various destinations without any stop.

Since its establishment as a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2019, the Boring Country has received numerous contracts to build tunnels in big cities like Angeles, Las Vegas, Florida, Chicago, California and many more. In California for instance, it was awarded a contract for a 1.14-mile tunnel, worth over $10 million naira.

Tunnel Rave pic.twitter.com/d3JKOIAsy7

— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) December 4, 2020

Just a few years ago, it secured a $48.6 million contract to build an underground “people mover,” the LVCC Loop in Las Vegas. This project was enveloped with two vehicular tunnels, one pedestrian tunnel and three stations. In 2022, TBC also got approval to expand the tunnels in Las Vegas to span 29 miles and possesses 51 stops, thereby aiding convenient transportation of people from the city to another.

Prufrock-1 has arrived at Resorts World on the Vegas Strip! Thanks to @ResortsWorldLV @LVCVA @ClarkCountyNV for their amazing support. pic.twitter.com/dr7VJLv3Lt

— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) February 4, 2022

Certainly, the Boring Company has also cemented its presence in Florida. Barely two years ago, it won a contract worth over $90 million to build a 5-mile (8.0 km) round-trip tunnel and stations. The list of contracts executed by TBC across all these cities and beyond shows that it is truly living up to its aspiration.

As part of its commitment towards eradicating vehicular gridlock in major cities, TBC completed a series C funding round worth $675 million in 2022. This investment places the firm on a $5.675 billion valuation.

It is noteworthy that the valuation of this firm has contributed immensely to the current net worth of the billionaire owner. However, then, the company said it wanted to harness the raised funds in a scaling loop that is capable of transporting passengers with high-speed tunnels.

Advocacy for the Regulation of AI

In 2015, Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit AI research lab that focuses on advancing open-source artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity. However, barely three years later, the business mogul parted ways with the project following a clash of interests.

Then, OpenAI deviated from its non-profit making model by establishing a business arm, which in return, birthed its introduction of a host of commercialized AI tools like ChatGPT. 

The success of these tools helped OpenAI amass huge profits and positioned it as one of the fastest-growing tech companies in history. Nevertheless, Musk was not happy with the company’s switch to a new and profit-oriented business model and began to criticize its operations. 

On numerous occasions, Elon Musk beseeched government regulators to introduce strict measures that will keep AI companies in check. He argued that artificial intelligence could be a threat to humanity if the government fails to regulate the sector. 

In November 2023, Elon Musk also criticized the removal of Sam Altman as the CEO of OpenAI. He established that the removal of Altman exposed the board’s plans to commercialize the firm. Eventually, the Tesla boss took a drastic step in February 2024 by filing a lawsuit against OpenAI. In the legal filing, Musk argued that the firm had breached its agreement by choosing to deviate from its non-profit-oriented model. 

Is Elon Musk Pro Crypto?

Over the years, Elon Musk has never hidden his admiration and support for cryptocurrencies. From the list of cryptocurrencies in the market right now, the popular billionaire has picked its favorite which is Dogecoin. Elon’s relationship with this meme coin could be traced to 2019 when he made his first tweet saying “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency, It’s pretty cool.”

This tweet spiked the value of the token by 20%. Ever since, he has continued to promote the token, thus impacting its market value.

Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019

In 2020, Musk on his verified Twitter handle, posted the image of Dogecoin standard with a caption “it is inevitable.” This post sparked thousands of reactions on Twitter. One of those who reacted asked the Tesla founder about Bitcoin. In his response, the billionaire said “excuse me, I only sell Doge.” Again, this response spiked the meme coin by 14%.

Elon Musk believes dogecoin is the future of cryptocurrency. In early 2022, he announced dogecoin as one of the payment methods for Tesla accessories. However, users must note that any purchases done with the meme coin are not refundable. As expected, the token came up by 9% after the news dominated the airspace.

In mid-2022, the popular billionaire took his support for Doge further. Then, he announced that his other company, SpaceX will now begin to accept the memecoin from customers who want to buy merchandise. It is noteworthy that all these efforts by Musk made the token gain more strength among its peers.

We placed Elon in pole position on our rich Bitcoin investors list.

Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022

On November 3, 2023, Elon Musk through his X (Formerly Twitter) page announced that his startup xAI will debut artificial intelligence. The announcement indicated that the Telsa boss is aiming to rival established AI companies like Google and Open AI.

In reaction to Musk’s tweet, XAI Corp commonly referred to as XAI crypto surged massively. The value of the XAI token rallied by 174% because most investors misrepresented it with xAI. In a bid to clear the confusion, the Tesla CEO took to his X page to emphasize that his company will never create a cryptocurrency.

To be super clear, none of my companies will ever create a crypto token

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023

Elon Musk’s Overall Net Worth and Investments

Certainly, the value of the overall assets belonging to Elon Musk has always been in the public domain. According to Forbes estimates, he is the second richest man in the world. Elon Musk’s net worth is around $187.6 billion. A background check into his assets shows that he co-founded six companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and TBC.

As of the time of writing, the billionaire owns at least 23% of Tesla and 73% of Twitter shares. Both SpaceX and TBC are worth $127 billion and $5.7 billion respectively. All these investments have significantly impacted Elon Musk’s net worth. A good example of this was how the 65% slide in Tesla shares made Musk’s net worth drop from $320 billion to $142 billion in 2022.

Elon Musk Crypto and NFT Holdings

As a pro-crypto, Elon Musk holds Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin. Although, he is yet to reveal the amount of these assets he personally holds. But, we rely on the post he made in 2019 about his Bitcoin holdings. Then, the billionaire claimed he had 0.25 BTC.

More so, it appears like Musk indirectly ventured into BTC and Dogecoin through his Tesla company. Recall that in 2021, the firm claimed it had 42,000 BTC. But, it sold 75% of the holdings in the following year for $963 million. Meanwhile, Tesla is yet to come out to declare the amount of the Dogecoin it holds. But, Musk in 2022, maintained that the firm has not sold its Dogecoin holdings and may likely not do so in the future.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is yet to show any appreciable interest in NFTs. Although, this does not mean he has no NFT holdings. Barely two years ago, he tweeted about converting a Techno song to NFT. After making this post, a lot of bids were made in advance for the collection. But, Musk downplayed the post a few days after, saying “doesn’t feel quite right selling this.”

While featuring on Regan Experience podcast, Musk hinted that most NFTs are not fully stored on-chain. More so, his submission pointed out to how some digital collectibles are hosted on an external server.

The Tesla boss argued that some NFTs are only URLs to the artwork. He added that if the company behind such a project stops functioning, holders of the NFTs will no longer have access to the digital piece.

Despite his indifference to NFTs, there are a lot of collections linked to him. One of them is called Elon.Space. This NFT was designed by Basic.Space, a social commerce firm. During its launch, the platform said the collection was inspired by Musk’s admiration for meme coins and cryptocurrencies at large.

Elon Musk Net Worth – Our Verdict

In this article, it has been established that Elon Musk is one of the biggest names in the world. This is due to his scores of investments, impressive net worth and celebrity lifestyle. Currently, he ranks second in the Forbes list of richest men in the world. Although, Musk might not have openly disclosed his overall crypto holdings, it is certain that the billionaire holds a huge amount of cryptocurrencies, particularly his favorite asset, Dogecoin.

Following his controversial takeover of Twitter last year, many analysts predicted that DOGE could soon join the list of payment options. Elon Musk, himself, confirmed his intention to introduce more elements of cryptocurrencies to facilitate mainstream adoption of the assets.

Recall that prior to the takeover, Twitter had already incorporated several crypto features into its network. At press time, the Tesla boss has already facilitated the rebranding of the app into X. But, Musk wants to do better and it is just a matter of time before we begin to see more developments taking shape on the microblogging site.

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