Dec 12 (Reuters) - Tesla CEO Elon Musk's net

worth crossed $400 billion on Thursday, the Forbes real-time

billionaires list showed, boosted by a nearly 71% surge in the

automaker's shares this year and the soaring valuation of his

rocket company SpaceX.

Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder with about a 13% stake

in the company. The EV maker's shares rose to a record high of

$424.9 on Wednesday, extending a rally that kicked off following

the Nov. 5 election.

His net worth was also boosted by an insider share sale of

SpaceX, which Musk heads. The rocket company and its investors

agreed to purchase as much as $1.25 billion of its common

shares, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

"What's really crazy about this is that almost no investors

wanted to sell shares even at a $350B valuation!" Musk wrote in

a reply to a post on X referring to the Bloomberg report.

He added that SpaceX has reduced the number of shares it

bought back from employees in order to bring in some new

investors.

Tesla investors have pinned their hopes on Musk's

relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, hoping the

billionaire's role in shaping the incoming Republican

administration's policy agenda would benefit the automaker.

Besides Tesla, Musk also heads brain technology startup

Neuralink. Both SpaceX and Neuralink rely heavily on government

regulation and policy and could benefit from a business-friendly

administration.

Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help

Trump win the election, also owns social media site X and tunnel

builder The Boring Company.

Musk is followed on the billionaires list by Amazon ( AMZN )

founder Jeff Bezos - with a net worth of $243.7 billion, while

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is in the third spot

with a net worth of $223.4 billion.