How SpaceX and Tesla’s Oct. 2 Rally Lifted Elon Musk’s Estimated Net Worth to $979.7 Billion

Forbes estimated Elon Musk’s net worth at $979.7 billion at 2:15 p.m. EDT on Oct. 2, 2026, up about $61 billion, or 6.64%, from the previous day. The estimate rose as shares in SpaceX and Tesla climbed, increasing the market value attributed to Musk’s holdings; it does not mean he received $61 billion in cash. 3

What drove the Oct. 2 increase?

SpaceX: three launches and an orbital AI experiment

SpaceX shares were up more than 7% at the time of Forbes’ estimate. Reports linked the rally to three launches in less than 13 hours, including flights carrying astronauts, a U.S. intelligence payload and an Alphabet AI experiment. 320

The Alphabet-related mission carried a prototype with Google tensor processing units into orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket. That offered investors a glimpse of possible space-based computing, but the available reports do not show how much this mission—or any individual launch—contributed to the share-price increase. 1820

A separate company-profile report described plans for SpaceX orbital-AI satellites and a cloud-services agreement with Alphabet. Those claims do not establish that the plans or reported agreement drove the Oct. 2 move, and the source material does not quantify their effect on SpaceX’s shares. 19

Tesla: deliveries beat expectations, with energy storage also reported

Tesla shares rose roughly 5% after the company reported 486,532 vehicle deliveries for the third quarter, above analysts’ expectations. 36 Tesla also reported deploying 13.7 gigawatt-hours of energy-storage products during the quarter. 16

The stock rally increased the estimated value of Musk’s Tesla stake, contributing to the day’s net-worth calculation. But the available reporting does not isolate how much of Tesla’s price move came from deliveries versus the energy-storage figure. 3616

A real-time estimate, not a fixed fortune

The $979.7 billion figure was an intraday snapshot. Forbes’ later update on Oct. 2 put Musk at about $983 billion and Jeff Bezos at about $371.4 billion, illustrating how a live estimate can change during the trading day. 14

Musk had crossed the trillion-dollar mark after SpaceX went public in June, according to Forbes, and had fallen back below it by September. So the Oct. 2 estimate brought him close to $1 trillion again but did not set a new high. 347

Why Tesla share counts can differ

One report compared the roughly 395.6 million Tesla shares counted in Forbes’ estimate with about 699.6 million shares in an SEC beneficial-ownership filing. The report attributes the difference to distinct counting approaches, including Forbes’ treatment of shares it considers not freely disposable. These figures should not be treated as interchangeable, or as a simple amount to add to a net-worth estimate. 13

The clearest explanation for the Oct. 2 increase is therefore the combined rally in SpaceX and Tesla shares. Launch activity, an orbital AI test and Tesla’s delivery and storage updates formed the news backdrop, but the available sources do not establish the precise contribution of each headline to the share-price moves.