How Much Does Elon Musk Make In A Day?

How Much Does Elon Musk Make In A Day?

Elon Musk is one of the few people whose daily wealth swings can rival the GDP of a small country. From Tesla to SpaceX, his fortune isn’t measured by a paycheck but by how markets and valuations shift. That makes answering the question of “how much does Elon Musk make in a day” both fascinating and tricky.

Net Worth in 2025

As of September 2025, Musk’s net worth is estimated between $384 billion and $436 billion, depending on which source you check. Both Forbes and Bloomberg track billionaire wealth, but they update differently and use slightly different valuation methods.

• Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List placed Musk around $435–436 billion and ranked him firmly at No. 1 on September 11.
• Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, meanwhile, showed him at $384 billion with a year-to-date decline of about $48 billion as of September 10.

The discrepancy comes from timing and methodology. Forbes updates continuously throughout the day, while Bloomberg recalculates once daily after New York markets close. Each outlet also values private companies like SpaceX differently, which can swing the numbers.

On September 10, 2025, Oracle’s stock surged after reporting unexpectedly strong results, especially due to its AI/cloud business. Because Larry Ellison owns about 41% of Oracle, the jump in its share price pushed his net worth up sharply. Bloomberg estimated it to have reached $393 billion, which for a short period exceeded Elon Musk’s (~$384 billion) according to its Billionaires Index.

By the end of the trading day, Oracle’s stock had settled somewhat, dropping off some gains, so Musk reclaimed the top spot.

So, How Much Does Elon “Make” in a Day

Think of it three ways:

1. YTD average move
   Bloomberg shows Musk −$48.2B YTD as of Sept 10, 2025. Spread across 253 calendar days in 2025 to that date, that averages about −$191 million per day. This is not a salary, just an average change in net worth this year so far.
2. A typical quiet day
   Forbes often records hundreds of millions up or down versus the prior close on calm sessions. For example, a +$321M day was recently shown on the real-time tracker.
3. Extreme days
   The record one-day jump widely cited for Musk is about $36.2 billion on October 25, 2021, when Tesla soared after the Hertz order headlines. In 2025 there have also been single-day jumps reported near $36 billion. These illustrate the ceiling for daily swings.

What Drives the Number

How the Daily Numbers Add Up

Musk technically takes no salary from Tesla, relying instead on performance-based stock awards. This means his “income” is really the daily change in his net worth.

In 2025, Bloomberg’s data suggests Musk has lost an average of about $191 million per day year-to-date. On quieter sessions, Forbes shows his wealth shifting by hundreds of millions either way. On extreme days, the numbers get eye-watering: in 2021, his fortune surged by $36 billion in a single day when Tesla stock skyrocketed. Similar multi-billion swings have already been seen in 2025.

SpaceX Matters More Every Year

Multiple reputable outlets report SpaceX secondary offerings and insider sales valuing the company around $400 billion in mid-2025. Reuters also reported Musk’s guidance that SpaceX revenue would be about $15.5 billion in 2025. Higher private valuations can lift his net worth even if public markets wobble.

Pay Packages and Legal Outcomes

The Delaware court rescinded Musk’s 2018 Tesla package in January 2024, but Tesla shareholders later re-ratified that award and approved reincorporation to Texas in June 2024. Musk is appealing the Delaware decision.

In early September 2025, several outlets reported a new proposed Tesla package with very ambitious 10-year targets that could be worth up to $1 trillion if fully achieved and approved. Any court ruling or shareholder vote here can change his long-term exposure and therefore future daily swings.

How Much Can Elon Make in the Months Ahead

Bull Case

If Tesla execution improves and AI or autonomy milestones land, plus SpaceX completes a high-priced secondary and Starlink keeps scaling, daily moves could skew positive by hundreds of millions on many days, with periodic multi-billion spikes around catalysts. SpaceX near $400B and revenue around $15.5B supports this upside narrative.

Base Case

Expect choppy markets and alternating leadership between mega-cap tech names. Under this scenario, Musk’s daily changes likely continue to average tens to hundreds of millions either way, with occasional larger bursts tied to earnings, deliveries, Starship milestones, or funding rounds.

Bear Case

If Tesla stumbles on margins or growth, if the court appeal goes against the 2018 award, or if a new package fails to pass, the average could lean negative again, similar to the −$48.2B YTD pattern Bloomberg tracked into September.

Conclusion

Asking “how much does Elon Musk make in a day” is really asking how much his net worth moves in a day. On most days that is hundreds of millions in either direction. On the biggest news days it can be tens of billions.

Where it lands next will largely depend on Tesla’s stock, SpaceX’s private valuation, and the outcome of Musk’s evolving compensation plans.

However, as we’ve seen from the brief surge in Oracle’s stock price, which pushed Larry Ellison above Musk for a short time, Oracle is one stock to watch.