Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest person, is projected to become the highest individual taxpayer in history. According to his own statement, he expects to pay more than 500 billion dollars in taxes over his lifetime. Musk’s total wealth now stands at about 852 billion dollars, placing him far ahead of other billionaires.

The surge in Musk’s wealth follows the recent merger between his rocket company SpaceX and artificial intelligence firm xAI, which created a new entity valued at 1.25 trillion dollars. The merger alone added 84 billion dollars to Musk’s personal fortune in a single day. Responding humorously on social media platform X, Musk said he had already paid over 10 billion dollars in taxes and joked that he deserved a small trophy for it.

Musk currently leads the race to become the world’s first trillionaire, with his closest rivals holding between 100 and 250 billion dollars. The source notes that if Tesla’s new incentives and stock targets are achieved, his wealth could multiply further over the next decade.