Elon Musk has regained his position as the world’s richest person, surpassing French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault. The change in rankings comes after the significant financial success of Musk’s new AI startup, xAI. Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Musk announced that xAI had raised $6 billion at an $18 billion pre-money valuation.
"Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely import to the future of civilization, I don't care about the Economics at all"
Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/LXULa6QA26— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) June 1, 2024
This was enough to elevate his net worth above Arnault’s. Musk originally co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before leaving three years later. He started xAI last July with the aim of competing directly with OpenAI.
"SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink , and The Boring Company are philanthropy. If you say philanthropy is love of humanity, they are philanthropy.
Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/lQCrKgCTwl— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) June 1, 2024
Protect Elon Musk at all costs, he is freeing the world. pic.twitter.com/hEgWP5XLTy
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) June 2, 2024
Musk has criticized OpenAI, alleging that the company’s focus on profit has deviated from its original mission of benefiting humanity.
Musk surpasses Arnault
xAI has already made headlines with its Grok chatbot.
The chatbot has an open-source version aimed at fulfilling OpenAI’s initial mission of developing an open-source artificial general intelligence. This strategic move underscores Musk’s commitment to advancing AI in a way that maximizes public benefit. Despite most of his assets being non-liquid, Musk’s net worth is currently estimated at $210.3 billion.
This makes him $8.4 billion richer than Arnault’s $201.9 billion. Jeff Bezos ranks third with an estimated net worth of $194.5 billion. As the competition in AI intensifies, Musk’s xAI is set to lead the charge for more open and advanced AI technologies.
His continued passion for technological and human progress signals the potential for more innovative products in the future, contributing positively to the AI landscape.
