The $300 Billion Elon Musk Myth , Let’s Talk Numbers

You may have seen this viral claim:

“Elon Musk is worth $300 billion , he could give every person on Earth $1 billion and still have money left over!”

It sounds generous. It also sounds unbelievable. That’s because it is.

Let’s break it down:

World population ≈ 8 billion

$1 billion per person × 8 billion people = $8,000,000,000,000,000

That’s 8 quadrillion dollars — far beyond any individual’s net worth, and well beyond the total money in circulation globally.

Reality check: Elon Musk’s net worth is around $300 billion.

He would need more than 26 times that amount to make this possible.

What people probably meant was:

“What if Elon gave everyone $1?”

That would total $8 billion , a huge gesture, but one that still leaves him with $292 billion.