Elon Musk, who completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, is the world’s richest person, with a current net worth of $204bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
However, his net worth has dropped by about $66.4bn since the start of the year, the index showed.
How much is Elon Musk worth now?
Mr Musk’s enormous fortune exceeds that of Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury group LVMH and the world’s second-wealthiest person with a net worth of $140bn — by $64bn.
The 50-year-old founder and chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX was crowned the world’s richest person in January this year, when his net worth was valued at $273.5bn by Bloomberg, which compared his wealth with John D Rockefeller.
“Mr Musk reached the level of riches, inflation-adjusted, achieved by modern history’s wealthiest person,” Bloomberg said at the time.
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Watch: Elon Musk enters Twitters HQ as he prepares to buy company
On April 14, Mr Musk launched his surprise bid for Twitter after becoming the microblogging platform's largest single shareholder with a stake of 9.2 per cent, or 73.5 million shares valued at about $3bn.
His offer price of $54.20 per share represented a 38 per cent premium on the closing price of Twitter's stock on April 1, the last trading day before his investment in the company was publicly announced.
Despite raising $46.5bn to finance his bid to buy Twitter, a combination of volatile stock markets, the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on Mr Musk’s net worth, Bloomberg said.
Richest person in the world
Mr Musk was also declared the richest person in the world in April by Forbes magazine in its annual 2022 World Billionaires List with a personal fortune of $219bn.
The Forbes annual list used stock prices and exchange rates from March 11 to calculate Mr Musk’s net worth, whereas the Bloomberg Billionaires Index is updated daily.
However, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list, which is updated daily, puts Mr Musk's current net worth at $223.8bn.
“Even after selling billions of dollars of Tesla stock late last year, and owing taxes on gains from those sales, Musk is an estimated $68bn richer than a year ago,” Forbes said in its annual report.
What is Mr Musk's background?
The Canadian-American businessman was born in South Africa and has seven children.
His stake in privately held SpaceX is valued at about $40.3bn, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.
Mr Musk has a history of posting market-moving tweets to stoke interest in his ventures, which has drawn the ire of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
In March, Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin were given a quick boost after he tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell.
In response, Bitcoin, which had fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Mr Musk’s tweet, wiped out its losses then retreated again. Ether was also up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains, while Dogecoin rose 3.8 per cent.
In November, Tesla's shares fell as much as 4.5 per cent at the start of trading in New York, having dropped nearly 7 per cent in premarket trading after Mr Musk asked his more than 80 million followers on Twitter whether he should sell 10 per cent of his holdings in the electric vehicle maker. A clear majority (58 per cent) of the 3.5 million Twitter users who voted said yes.
Mr Musk made his first millions in the 1990s, when he sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300m. He then launched X.com, an online payment system that eventually became PayPal, which he sold to eBay for $1.5bn in 2002.
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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The Energy Research Centre
Founded 50 years ago as a nuclear research institute, scientists at the centre believed nuclear would be the “solution for everything”.
Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
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