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Thank you so much. 
Elon Musk just became the first 

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human being in history worth 
$700 billion. 

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According to the Forbes 
Billionaires Index, Musk's net 

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worth surged to $749 billion 
late on Friday after the 

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Delaware Supreme Court restored 
his 2018 Tesla pay package. 

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That package was recently valued
at $56 billion, but today it's 

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worth $139 billion. 
Four days earlier, Musk had 

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crossed another threshold, first
person ever worth $600 billion. 

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In the span of one week, Musk 
added roughly $150 billion to 

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his personal fortune. 
This is more than most countries

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produce in a year. 
So how did this happen, and what

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does it tell us about where 
wealth is actually going now? 

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The answer involves illegal 
ruling, a pending SpaceX FPO, 

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and a series of wealth 
milestones that no one else has 

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come close to touching. 
Today, we're going to walk 

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through the court decision, the 
SpaceX valuation, how Musk 

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stacks up against other 
billionaires on Earth, and what 

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comes next on the path to a 
trillion. 

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We'll be right into that after 
this very short break. 

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Now, the Delaware Supreme Court 
ruling dropped on Friday, 

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December 19th, and it changed 
everything. 

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The court reversed a lower court
decision that had voided Musk's 

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2018 CEO compensation package 
from Tesla, and the 2018 deal 

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gave Musk options to buy another
304,000,000 Tesla shares at a 

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heavily discounted price. 
The package was tied to 12 

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performance milestones, and Musk
hit every single one of those. 

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When the package was granted, 
Tesla was worth around 60 

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billion. 
Today, Tesla's market cap sits 

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at 1.6 trillion, so options 
granted when the stock was at 

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one point exercise when the 
stock has grown more than 

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twentyfold. 
The original $56 billion package

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is now worth 139 billion, based 
on Friday's closing price. 

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Now, a lower court had thrown 
out that package in January 

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2024, and the judge called it 
unfathomable and said the Tesla 

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board's approval process was 
flawed because Musk controlled 

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the board. 
The shareholders voted twice to 

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ratify the deal anyway, and the 
lower court rejected the 

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argument, too. 
But on Friday, Delaware's 

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highest court said the remedy 
went too far. 

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We're sending the entire 
package, left. 

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Musk uncompensated for his time 
and efforts over a period of six

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years, and the Supreme Court 
restored the package in full and

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awarded Tesla $1.00 in nominal 
damages, $1.00 That is a penalty

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for what the lower court called 
a flawed process. 

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Now. 
The ruling came just four days 

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after Musk crossed the $600 
billion mark for the first time,

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and the milestone was driven by 
something else entirely, SpaceX.

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Now the company hit a $800 
billion valuation in an insider 

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share sale, making it the most 
valuable private company in the 

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world. 
Musk owns roughly 42% of SpaceX,

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and that stake alone is worth 
more than $330 billion. 

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Spacex's valuation doubled from 
400 billion in July to 800 

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billion in December. 
So in 1/4, Musk's SpaceX 

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holdings added over $160 billion
to his net worth. 

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Now here is how Musk's wealth 
compares to everyone else. 

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Larry Page, the Co founder of 
Google, is the second richest 

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person on earth. 
His net worth is around $252 

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billion. 
Musk is worth nearly 500 billion

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more than Page now. 
That gap is larger than the 

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entire fortunes of most 
billionaires. 

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Musk is now worth more than the 
second, third and 4th richest 

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person combined. 
Larry Page at 252 billion, Larry

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Ellison at 243 billion and Bezos
at 239 billion together total 

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roughly 734 billion. 
Musk is at about 749 billion. 

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He has effectively lapped the 
field. 

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Earlier this year, Oracle Co 
founder Larry Ellison briefly 

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knocked Musk from the top spot 
when Oracle stock surged. 

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That lasted about one whole day.
No one else is even close 

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anymore, and the trajectory is 
worth tracking. 

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When Bloomberg first added Musk 
to his billionaire index in 

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2013, he was about $4.8 billion.
It's still an absurd amount of 

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money, but it is pocket change 
by his current standards. 

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He had $100 billion in August of
2020. 

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That was driven by Tesla's 
surging stock price as the 

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company finally cracked. 
Mass production and demand 

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outstrip supply, and by 
September 2021, he reached $200 

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billion. 
Two months later, 300 billion. 

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In December 2024, he crossed 400
billion, boosted in part by 

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optimism around a second Trump 
administration, and by October 

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2025, five, 100 billion, now 700
billion. 

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He added 100 billion per year on
average, but the last 200 

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billion came in weeks. 
In the acceleration is insane. 

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Each new milestone come faster 
than last one. 

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To put $748 billion in context, 
consider what the number 

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actually represents. 
It is larger than the annual GDP

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of countries like Switzerland, 
Poland, or Argentina. 

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It exceeds the entire market 
capitalization of most publicly 

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traded companies. 
Only a handful of corporations 

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on Earth are worth more than 
Musk's net worth. 

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Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, 
Alphabet, Amazon, and also Saudi

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Aramco. 
That is roughly the complete 

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list. 
But Musk as an individual is 

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worth more than Coca-Cola, 
Disney, and Netflix combined. 

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That's just one guy. 
It's crazy and it's difficult to

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comprehend all of this. 
Now everyone's asking if Musk 

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will become the first 
trillionaire. 

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So the math is mathing. 
And it says he could. 

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SpaceX is reportedly preparing 
for an IPO in 2026. 

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Any potential valuation of 1.4 
trillion. 

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If that happens and Musk retains
his 42% stake, his SpaceX 

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holdings alone would be worth 
over $600 billion. 

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Just before counting Tesla, 
Before counting XAI, before 

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counting any other assets, His 
AI startup XAI just closed the 

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funding route of $230 billion. 
Musk owns roughly 1/3 of that 

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company. 
Between SpaceX, Tesla, and XAI, 

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Musk's empire spans EVs, 
rockets, satellite Internet, and

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artificial intelligence. 
No other individual holds 

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comparable stakes across many 
high growth sectors. 

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Simultaneously, there's also a 
new Tesla pay package. 

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In November 2025, shareholders 
approved a compensation plan 

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that could pay Musk up to a 
trillion dollars over the next 

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10 years. 
That's the largest corporate pay

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package ever approved, and the 
package consists of 12 tranches 

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of shares that vest if Tesla hit
certain milestones. 

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Those targets start at a $2 
trillion valuation and scale all

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the way up to 8.5 trillion. 
For reference, Tesla currently 

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trades around 1.6 trillion. 
Hitting the top target would 

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require Tesla to grow more than 
five times over the next 10 

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years. 
And if Musk hits those targets, 

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his ownership stake in Tesla 
would grow from about 12% to 

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roughly 25%. 
That would give him 

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significantly more voting power 
over the company's direction 

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now. 
Musk is now closer to becoming a

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trillionaire than he is to being
caught by the second richest 

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person on the planet. 
The gap between Musk and Larry 

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Page is $500 billion. 
Musk would never let that go, 

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and he would need to gain 
another 250 billion to hit a 

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trillion. 
It's possible it's half the 

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distance. 
Given the trajectory, it could 

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happen within the next year or 
two. 

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So with all that money and Musk 
and all the other billionaires, 

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what does it even mean? 
It depends on your perspective. 

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Musk has said publicly that he 
needs the money to fund the Mars

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missions with Starship. 
He's laid it out repeatedly. 

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Human consciousness is good. 
Earth will eventually become 

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uninhabitable. 
Humanity needs to become multi 

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planetary and that requires vast
amounts of capital. 

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If you accept that framing then 
accumulation of a trillion 

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dollars is just a means to an 
end. 

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But Mars colonization remains 
decades away at best. 

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Because we're going to go there 
and send things there first. 

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We have to put down the 
infrastructure 1st and we 

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haven't even done that on the 
moon yet, which is close by. 

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That's a day away, a few days 
away. 

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And Mars is the nine month jump 
from Earth to Mars. 

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We have no technology tested on 
the surface of Mars for people 

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to live there yet, so it's going
to be a while. 

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And the Martian soil cannot 
support food production without 

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major intervention. 
Their engineering problems that 

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money alone does not solve. 
We have to figure stuff out and 

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the timeline keeps slipping 
away. 

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Musk once predicted crude 
missions to Mars by 2024. 

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Now he's saying late twenty 20s 
at the earliest. 

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So five, you know, four or five 
years, somewhere around there. 

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There's also the simpler 
observation worth making. 

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Here. 
We're watching wealth 

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concentrate at a scale never 
before seen in human history. 

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One person now holds assets 
worth more than the GDP of most 

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nations. 
The gap between Musk and the 

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00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:01,480
second richest person on Earth 
is larger than the entire 

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00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:04,800
fortunes of most billionaires. 
And whether that level of 

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00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,800
concentration is good or bad or 
neutral is a question for 

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00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,800
economists and philosophers. 
What is undeniable is that it's 

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happening and it's accelerating.
Private market stock options and

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tech valuations have created a 
wealth engine with no historical

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parallel. 
Now, the court ruling that 

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00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:26,960
triggered this largest surge is 
also worth sitting with. 

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Lower court found that Musk 
controlled Tesla's board and 

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that the board failed to 
disclose material information to

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shareholders. 
Supreme Court did not dispute 

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those findings, simply said that
throwing out the entire pay 

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package was too harsh. 
So Musk keeps his 139 trillion 

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00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:48,320
or $139 billion in options Tesla
plays, pays $1.00 in damages, 

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00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,280
and the question of whether 
concentrated corporate power 

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produces fair outcomes remains 
unanswered. 

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00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:58,880
Now Musk responded to the court 
ruling on X. 

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He said thank you for your 
unwavering support. 

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00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:06,360
Now Tesla stock barely moved in 
after hours trading because of 

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00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:08,560
this in the market had 
apparently priced in the 

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00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:12,920
possibility and for Musk, the 
world's first $700 billion, man,

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the next milestone is $1 
trillion. 

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Hey, thank you so much for 
listening today. 

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I really do appreciate your 
support. 

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If you could take a second and 
hit this subscribe or the follow

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button on whatever podcast plat 
thing on right now, I greatly 

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00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:30,080
appreciate it. 
It helps out the show 

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tremendously. 
And you'll knit and each episode

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00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,640
is about 10 minutes to get you 
caught up quickly. 

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00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:41,480
And please, if you support the 
show, evenmore.com/stage Zero 

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00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:43,720
and please take care of 
yourselves and each other and 

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I'll see you tomorrow.