How strange time to be Elon Musk.
This year started with the businessman turned political operator throwing what, at least for the Nazis, a Sieg heil.
This spring, activists regularly gathered outside the showrooms of his automaker, Tesla, to protest his foray into the U.S. federal government and his cozy relationship with President Trump. They argued that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting operation named after a more than a decade-old Internet meme, did not go much beyond foreign aid. They cheered when Tesla failed to meet Wall Street's financial expectations.
In May, Musk blew up his relationship with the most powerful man on Earth with some nasty posts on X; the most powerful man on earth called him a 'TRAIN WRECK'. Tesla kept leaking money. DOGE fell victim to the infighting in Washington; it is now reportedly decentralized and a shadow of the Musk personal fief it once was.
And yet: It looks like Elon Musk is leaving 2025, okay? Or, to put it succinctly: Elon Musk may not be the king of the world, but Elon Musk is still very powerful.
Money isn't everything, but when it comes to the richest person in the known universe, it's worth looking at the numbers. Tesla has swung a bit this year (more on that later), and historically, much of Musk's wealth has come from the world's most valuable automaker. That should be bad news for Musk. But it's increasingly clear that the Tesla CEO's other private companies — SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink — have kept his portfolio diversified, shielding the aspiring billionaire from some of the whipsaws of the public market.
Musk is worth about $462 billion, according to Bloomberg, and his stake in Tesla is valued at $140 billion — less than half of his fortune — according to financial filings. Overall, Musk's net worth has increased by $29 billion since last year.
How did a man who started the year as the president's “first friend” and ended it as a political pariah do it? It was mainly a story of two companies: Tesla got into trouble, while SpaceX shot satellites into orbit and won government contracts. Musk, meanwhile, cheered from X, a website for which he appears to have vastly overpaid in 2022. But the investment worked; The platform set the pace for political and social commentary among the global right wing for much of 2025.
In all respects, Tesla had a less than stellar year. The US electric vehicle market floundered as the Trump administration cut tax subsidies and support for battery and vehicle manufacturing factories. It lifted, then withdrew, then re-raised global tariffs that have put pressure on the entire US auto industry. Musk's company was not immune to the consequences.
