Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, September 12th.

Today on Forbes, despite Tesla volatility and declining popularity,

Elon Musk remains America's richest person.

Over the past year, Elon Musk has been up, campaigning for Donald Trump and then briefly

running the president's new Department of

Government Efficiency, and he's been down, predictably falling out with Trump and threatening to

create his own political party. But through it all, Musk has remained the richest person in America.

He yet again retains the top spot on the annual Forbes 400 ranking of richest Americans, which was released

this past Tuesday. It's Musk's fourth straight year at number one on the list. He set a couple

of records along the way. He has added $184 billion to his net worth over the past 12 months,

a Forbes 400 record for the largest one-year gain, smashing the record

he previously set between 2020 and 2021, when he gained $122 billion.

Musk is also the first person ever worth more than $400 billion on the Forbes 400, with an estimated

net worth of $428 billion.

All figures for this year's ranking reflects stock prices from September 1st, 2025.

Musk's competitors have become distant runners-up.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, number two with an estimated $276 billion net worth, and meta-co-founder Larry Ellison, number two, with an estimated $276 billion net worth, and

meta-co-co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, number three, with $253 billion, each trail Musk by a margin

of more than $150 billion, a sum equal to the entire net worth of Warren Buffett, who ranks

at number nine.

All of Musk's largest holdings have increased in value over the past year, as his investor

fan base, ranging from the Tesla stock enthusiasts to billionaire VCs and Middle East

...