'Only person in history...': Forbes ranks Elon Musk No. 1 innovator; here’s who else made the top 10

Forbes ranks Musk No. 1 for building five multibillion-dollar companies across EVs, space, AI and biotech

• Elon Musk tops Forbes 250 list for founding five multibillion-dollar companies
• Musk tops Bezos, Gates, and Huang in multi-sector innovation ranking.
• SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, xAI, and The Boring Company achieve historic milestone

Did our AI summary help?

Elon Musk has been named the top innovator on Forbes’ annual 'Forbes 250' list, with the magazine citing his role in building or scaling five multibillion-dollar companies across different industries, a feat it described as historically unmatched.

The ranking places Musk ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a list that spans technology, media, venture capital and manufacturing.

.@ElonMusk named No. 1 on the #Forbes250 Greatest Innovators list. See who else is in the Top 10: https://t.co/CFs11UNXUH (Photo: Martin Schoeller) pic.twitter.com/HNcHUVGZQH

— Forbes (@Forbes) February 11, 2026

Five industries, five multibillion-dollar companies

Forbes said Musk is 'the only person in history' to have founded or grown five companies, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company, each now valued in the billions and operating in separate sectors.

The companies span electric vehicles, private space exploration, brain-computer interface technology, artificial intelligence and underground infrastructure.

The recognition comes as Musk remains the world’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of about $684 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bezos, Gates and Huang follow

Jeff Bezos ranked No. 2 for transforming America’s $7.4 trillion retail industry through Amazon.com and pioneering cloud computing with Amazon Web Services. Forbes also highlighted his space venture Blue Origin and his work on AI manufacturing systems at Prometheus.

Bill Gates placed third, credited for kickstarting the personal computing revolution with Microsoft and later reinventing himself as a major global philanthropist.

George Lucas ranked fourth for reshaping Hollywood with 'Star Wars,' revolutionising film merchandising and advancing movie technology through Industrial Light & Magic and THX.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took fifth place for turning the graphics chipmaker into what Forbes described as the beating heart of the AI economy, driven by early bets on parallel computing.

The new space race backdrop

Musk’s ranking comes amid renewed competition in private space exploration.

Earlier this month, Musk said SpaceX would prioritise building a base on the moon before sending humans to Mars.

Meanwhile, Bezos’ Blue Origin announced it would pause its space tourism flights to focus on developing a lunar lander for NASA.

The Forbes 250 list also includes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nike co-founder Phil Knight, biotech entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt, media pioneer Ted Turner and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, among others.