Elon Musk reclaimed the title of the world’s richest person over Memorial Day Weekend, thanks to his new artificial intelligence startup, xAI.
The company raised $6 billion at an $18 billion pre-money valuation.
This boost in valuation has pushed Musk ahead of French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault.
As of Tuesday’s (May 29) market close, Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth at $209.5 billion, surpassing Arnault’s estimated $204.3 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is now in third place, with a fortune estimated at $200 billion.
Musk launched xAI last July, aiming to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, which Musk co-founded in 2015 but left three years later.
Musk has criticized ChatGPT for being “woke” and sued OpenAI in March.
He claims its profit-driven approach undermines its mission of developing open-source artificial general intelligence to benefit humanity.
Musk owns a 60 percent stake in xAI, valued at $14.4 billion
In a recent press release, xAI highlighted the release of an open-source version of its Grok chatbot.
The startup also invited engineers to join its mission of pursuing truth without regard to popularity or political correctness.
Forbes estimates Musk owns a 60 percent stake in xAI, valued at $14.4 billion after the latest funding round.
The investment was led by backers of Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company.
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Musk’s wealth is also tied to his nearly 12 percent stake in Tesla and a 42 percent stake in SpaceX, each valued at around $75 billion.
However, his 74 percent stake in Twitter, renamed X, has dropped to roughly $7 billion, nearly 70 percent less than he paid in 2022.
Musk’s position as the world’s richest person has fluctuated due to Tesla’s volatile stock and SpaceX’s rising valuation.
Arnault recently overtook Musk in January after a Delaware judge voided nearly $50 billion of Musk’s Tesla stock options, a decision now subject to a shareholder vote on June 13.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s potential tender offer could value the company at around $200 billion, further solidifying Musk’s lead.
