Elon Musk more than doubled his fortune over the past 12 months to rank No. 1 on the annual Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people for the fifth straight year, worth an estimated $908 billion. But the ride was anything but smooth for the SpaceX and Tesla chief, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire (and saw his fortune top out at $1.3 trillion) after his rocketmaker went public in June.

SpaceX’s shares have since come back to earth after soaring into orbit post-IPO, falling 34% from their peak to close trading for The Forbes 400 just 10% above their initial offering price, implying a market cap of nearly $2 trillion. But that was still enough to help Elon Musk, who owns 38% of the company (including stock options), gain a record $480 billion over the past year— smashing the record $184 billion gain he posted for the 2025 Forbes 400, when he was worth $428 billion.

That has allowed Musk to further tighten his grip on the title of America’s richest person. He’s now $530 billion richer than the nation’s No. 2, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (estimated fortune: $378 billion), who has returned to the second spot after falling to No. 4 on last year’s ranking. Bezos’ climb is thanks to the soaring valuation of his own rocketmaker, Blue Origin, which Forbes estimates is now worth $130 billion. Bezos owns 100% of that still-private company, which Forbes had previously valued at around $29 billion (the amount Bezos has invested in Blue Origin, according to estimates by analysts at Space Capital). Last year’s runner-up, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, meanwhile, dropped to No. 7, as his net worth fell by $72 billion, to an estimated $204 billion—a staggering $704 billion less than Musk.