• Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has seen his wealth plummet by some $80 billion this year, thanks in part to a 20% decline in his electrical vehicle company’s stock. Now, just $60 billion separates Musk from Oracle’s Larry Ellison—and another Tesla tumble could see Musk dethroned as the world’s richest man.

Elon Musk claims to have slashed billions of dollars worth of wasteful spending during his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—but his controversial role may have done more damage to his pocketbook than he anticipated.

This year alone, Musk has lost some $80 billion in his net worth, bringing his current value to about $352 billion—a far cry from his over $450 billion peak late last year, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

Musk’s wealth declines are largely tied to his 13% stake in struggling Tesla. Even after shareholders practically begged the billionaire to leave DOGE and focus on Tesla full-time, Musk’s return to Austin hasn’t been so glamorous. The electric vehicle company missed Wall Street expectations and experienced a double-digit percentage revenue decline in the second quarter of 2025. Tesla’s stock price is down nearly 20% this year.

But shareholders are doing the opposite of pulling the plug on Musk; they’ve just awarded him a pay package worth some $29 billion—in what shareholders called a “critical first step toward” keeping “Elon’s energies focused on Tesla,” reports The New York Times.

While Musk remains the No. 1 richest person on the planet, fellow members of the ultra rich like Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg are tapping at the door to replace him at the top of the billionaire list.

Musk’s climb to the top of the world

2024 was a standout year for Tesla. The company’s stock nearly doubled, with the market cap topping $1.4 trillion in December. Due to his sizable stake, the jump soared Musk’s wealth and seemingly cemented him at the time at the top of the billionaires after years of back and forth among billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Musk’s success also comes from his stakes in his other companies, including XAI Holdings (the combined firm of social media X and AI startup xAI), SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. 

But like struggles at Tesla, his companies are causing financial headaches for the billionaire. xAI is reportedly burning through $1 billion a month and The Boring Company’s valuation has decreased to $6.4 billion from $8.6 billion in July 2023, according to Bloomberg.

While he did not take a salary from his role at DOGE, his companies have largely benefited from working with the government over the years. According to The Washington Post, his businesses have received some $38 billion in contracts, loans, subsidies, and more.

Now, Musk has an uphill battle ahead of him in the court of public opinion; just 30% of voters have a favorable view of Musk, according to a Quinnipiac Poll released in June. And after a public feud with President Donald Trump over the federal budget, even support among Republicans has dipped.

How Musk may lose his richest man title

While Musk has lost the most wealth of anyone in 2025 so far, he’s not alone. Jeff Bezos is also in the red, losing about $1.7 billion this year, largely thanks to Amazon’s struggling stock performance. Bill Gates has also lost a sizable amount of wealth—some $36 billion—but it’s been because of his ramped-up philanthropy efforts.

On the flip side, Larry Ellison (+$102 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (+$56 billion), and Jensen Huang ($37 billion) have seen sizable wealth increases.

Only $60 billion now separates Musk and Ellison as No. 1 and 2, according to Bloomberg, thanks to the newfound success of Ellison’s tech giant, Oracle. The company’s newfound focus on AI helped earnings soar and contributed to a stock jump of over 50% this year. Ellison’s wealth has grown by over $100 billion this year—and it’s likely to only continue.

“Oracle’s future is bright in this new era of cloud computing. Oracle will be the number one cloud database company,” Ellison said in the business’ earnings call in June. “Oracle is already prospering in this new era of cloud computing and AI, and it’s just the beginning.”

If the trends continue, and Oracle continues to grow while Tesla flounders, Ellison could replace Musk as the richest person in the world by year’s end.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• As remote work lingers, employees are doubling, even tripling, their paychecks by secretly juggling multiple full-time jobs—and not even having to pull overtime. The overemployed workers Fortune spoke to are working up to five jobs and pulling in more than $725,000 a year, all within a standard 40-hour week. 

If you’ve grown suspicious of your coworker’s away status on Teams or their refusal to turn their camera on during meetings, there’s a chance they might be trying to earn two salaries at once—and fit it all into a normal workweek.

The practice went viral on social media last month when a single software engineer was found to be working at multiple Silicon Valley startups at once, prompting other companies to check whether they had fallen victim to similar deceitfulness. 

However, holding down more than one gig at a time—sometimes even up to five—may be bigger than some companies expect. After all, the continued prevalence of remote work has made it more challenging for employers to know exactly what their workers are up to.

“If you’ve worked in corporate America, it is a lot of fluff and not a lot of substance,” said one worker who spoke anonymously with Fortune. They currently work three gigs, making about $725,000 altogether.

At one point, they were balancing five roles total, something they said has been made possible by AI productivity enhancement, with new tools making it easier than ever to send emails, compile meeting notes, and draft deliverables—and get it all done under relatively normal work hours.

“At this point it kind of became a game to me, how many jobs can I do at once and stay sane?” they recalled.

Maxing out on jobs certainly paid. off. While juggling five at once, they estimated bringing in more than $1 million a year.

“I have zero loyalty to a corporation,” they added.

No regrets about taking work from others

Fortune spoke to a second worker who currently holds two jobs in the healthcare technology industry. And despite being a full-time worker making a combined amount of nearly $250,000, they are able to get all the work completed within 40 hours. They don’t have concerns over taking jobs away from those struggling in today’s rocky job market.

“They’re hiring me for my knowledge and my expertise, not for hours worked,” they told Fortune.

And while holding more than one job may raise eyebrows next time you have to put your work history on a resume, they said they will just write the best full-time role they had at a current period to avoid having to answer for holding two jobs at once. However, the demand for talent in the healthcare tech industry has not made it much of an issue.

“I don’t go look for jobs, jobs come and look for me,” they said. “To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I went to apply for a job. And since 2017, I’ve had four different positions.”

In fact, they said they got so many recruitment offers from firms trying to snatch up talent, the companies practically enabled overemployment behavior. 

Holding more than one job might be legal, but some people like Lewis Maleh, CEO of executive recruitment agency Bentley Lewis, don’t recommend people emulate the behavior.

“If someone is doing a full-time perm job and being paid accordingly, they should not be doing another full-time perm role unless the company is OK with it,” Maleh previously told Fortune. “I don’t think it’s ethical and will cost you down the road if you get found out. If you are doing a few part-time gigs, that’s of course a different story.”

A trend that might continue, but maybe not for long

Though both of the sources Fortune spoke with are fully-remote employees, some users on the overemployment Reddit community have deemed it possible to secretly work at a second job while on site elsewhere. But by and large, working multiple full-time jobs has been enabled by the ability to work from home.

Despite calls for workers to return to the office from large Fortune 500 companies like JPMorgan Chase, remote work is still common.  In fact, 33% of all workers worked from home in 2024, down just slightly from 35% in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest American Time Use Survey.

Remote work has stuck around far more than Jerry Jacobs, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, expected—but now bosses are slowly getting better at gauging workers’ productivity realities.

“The longer (remote work) lasts, the more I think people will get used to this as just being, you know, one way that people work,” Jacobs tells Fortune. “And I think the longer it lasts, the more you know, people are going to get good at managing it.”

And as a result, he doesn’t expect the trend of having multiple full-time jobs to carry on—but rather something people are experimenting with.

“It’s hard to convince people on your first job, that you’re really doing your job, if you’re spending a lot of your time and energy on your second job,” he adds.

Similarly Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor–human relations at Penn State University Abington, believes working more than one full-time job has the potential to grow, but it remains to be seen what that will actually look like.

“The question is, will the ethics, the productivity, the rules and regulations catch up with this?”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• As unemployment climbs and AI wipes out white-collar jobs, Walmart is dangling six-figure salaries and luxury perks to lure tech workers. The Fortune 500 retail giant is actively hiring software engineers, data scientists, and product managers. A senior director in data science can expect to earn up to $320,000.

Landing a lucrative tech job has never been easy—but this year in particular has presented unique challenges thanks to AI’s revolution of the job market and a worsening labor market.

Some companies are using AI to boost productivity. Others are using it as a reason to slash headcount. Firms like Intel, Google, and Microsoft have cut jobs in recent months, but while their leaders haven’t solely blamed the technology, others haven’t minced words.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a recent internal memo. “In the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

But there are still opportunities for workers to find success in today’s job market. Walmart, the No. 1 company on the Fortune 500 list, is on the hunt for experienced software engineers, data scientists, IT product managers, and more—with dozens of open job postings making six-figures, with some roles extending to over $300,000.

The perks and paychecks on offer at Walmart 

Pickleball classes, hydromassages, and rooftop lounges.

Those are the perks you could be enjoying if you’re willing to pack your bags and move to Bentonville, Arkansas, and take a job at Walmart’s new 350-acre luxury campus.

And while the office alone might not convince you to relocate to small-town America, the retail giant is still willing to shell out high-paying salaries for competitive tech talent. Walmart is on the hunt for experienced software engineers, data scientists, IT product managers, and more.

Here’s what each can expect to earn: 

• Software engineer
  • Staff, software engineer: $132,000-$264,000
  • Principal, software engineer: $110,000-$220,000
  • Senior, software engineer: $90,000-$180,000
  • Distinguished, software engineer: $156,000-$338,000

• IT product managers
  • Staff, product manager: $110,000-$220,000
  • Senior, product manager: $90,000-$180,000
  • Principal, product manager: $110,000-$220,000

• Data scientists
  • Staff, data scientist: $143,000-$286,000
  • Senior, data scientist: $90,000-$180,000
  • Distinguished, data scientist: $130,000-$312,000
  • Principal, data scientist: $143,000-$286,000

• UX designers
  • Senior UX designer: $90,000-$180,000
  • Senior manager, UX design: $110,000-$220,000
  • Senior, design researcher: $90,000-$180,000

• Tech directors
  • Director, software engineering: $130,000-$260,000
  • Group director, software engineering: $195,000-$370,000
  • Director, data science: $169,000-$338,000
  • Senior director, data science: $160,000-$320,000

These numbers were sourced based on Fortune analysis of active job postings, but the exact compensation package, including salary, bonus opportunities, and stock award, will likely vary by role and depend heavily on a candidate’s experience. Location, too, is a factor, with Walmart also recruiting for its satellite locations like in California and Washington.

Fortune reached out to Walmart for comment.

The secrets to landing a job in today’s rocky market

Despite this revolution, some best practices still hold true for landing a high-paying gig. But because careers are changing faster than ever, Jassy encourages Gen Z to stop worrying about what their job will look like in 10 years—and focus on finding a passion.

“I have a 21-year-old son and a 24-year-old daughter, and one of the things I see with them and their peers is they all feel like they have to know what they want to do for their life at that age,” Jassy said on the podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak. “And I really don’t believe that’s true.”

And it’s a practice he learned from personally; Jassy experimented in sportscasting, soccer coaching, and investment banking before landing at Amazon.

“I tried a lot of things, and I think that early on, it’s just as important to learn what you don’t want to do as what you want to do, because it actually helps you figure out what you want to do.”

For Walmart CEO Doug McMillion, one of the secrets for success is simple: raising your hand and being a team player.
“Nothing happens through the work of just an individual,” McMillon told Stanford’s Graduate School of Business this May. “We all do this together.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images—Luis Alvarez

• Microsoft’s list of 40 jobs that have high crossover with AI is going viral—and professionals are warning that it highlights the careers “most at risk,” with historians, translators, and sales reps high on the list. While Microsoft says high applicability doesn’t automatically mean those roles will be killed by AI, employers have been putting a pause on hiring and cutting roles to make way for enhanced productivity.

As companies like Amazon publicly announce AI-driven workforce reductions, workers are scrambling to understand which careers might soon disappear and be outsourced to technology.

A new report from Microsoft researchers studying the occupational implications of generative AI offers some clarity.

Translators, historians, and writers are among the roles with the highest AI applicability score, meaning the job’s tasks are most closely aligned with AI’s current abilities, according to the report released this month that ranked professions. Customer service and sales representatives—which make up about 5 million jobs in the U.S.—will also have to compete with AI. 

Overall, the jobs most exposed are ones that involve knowledge work—like people doing computer, math, or administrative work in an office, the researchers wrote. Sales jobs are also high on the list, since they often involve sharing and explaining information.

While Microsoft said high applicability doesn’t automatically mean those jobs will necessarily be replaced by AI, the list of roles quickly went viral—with professionals deeming them “most at risk.” It comes as companies like IBM have been freezing thousands of would-be new roles that it expects AI will take over in the next 5 years, and graduates in the U.K. are facing the worst job market since 2018 as employers pause hiring and use AI to cut costs, says Indeed.

Of course, there are some jobs that are unlikely to be touched by AI: Dredge operators; bridge and lock tenders; and water treatment plant and system operators are among the jobs with virtually no generative AI exposure, thanks in part to their hands-on equipment requirements.

Still, business leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have said that every job will be touched by AI in some way, and so it’s best to embrace it. 

“Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable,” Huang said at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in May. “You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.”

A degree won’t save you from AI’s jobs revolution

Many of the jobs with high chances of getting upended by AI soon, like political scientists, journalists, and management analysts, are all ones that typically require a four-year degree to land a job. And as the researchers point out, having a degree—which was once considered a surefire path to career advancement—is no longer a safeguard against the changing tides. 

“In terms of education requirements, we find higher AI applicability for occupations requiring a Bachelor’s degree than occupations with lower requirements,” wrote the researchers, who studied 200,000 real-world conversations of Copilot users and cross-compared the AI’s performance with occupational data.

On the flip side, there are some career paths with low AI exposure, that are growing in demand. The healthcare sector, in particular, is an area that is experiencing this heavily. The home health and personal care aid industry is expected to create the greatest number of new jobs over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

At the same time, the researchers recognized that even their findings don’t capture the full scope of the AI revolution—and there could be further automation caused by more than just generative technology: “Our measurement is purely about LLMs: other applications of AI could certainly affect occupations involving operating and monitoring machinery, such as truck driving.”

Kiran Tomlinson, a senior Microsoft researcher, tells Fortune the study focused on highlighting where AI might change how work is done, not take away or replace jobs.

“Our research shows that AI supports many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing, and communication, but does not indicate it can fully perform any single occupation. As AI adoption accelerates, it’s important that we continue to study and better understand its societal and economic impact,” Tomlinson says.

Gen Z’s big bet on education might not be all glam

After seeing the rollercoaster of layoffs across the tech industry over the past few years, many Gen Zers have turned to seemingly steadier fields like education.

The sector was the fastest-growing industry among recent U.K. graduates last year, and it was similarly a top career choice for American graduates. And while the profession can provide further work-life balance and decent benefits, the ability for AI to do the work may cause further headache. The report singles out farm and home management educators—as well as postsecondary economics, business, and library science teachers—as roles with relatively high AI applicability.

While it’s unlikely that schools will roll out AI teachers en masse, the report’s findings underscore how quickly the technology could reshape the education profession—and many others.

The top 10 least affected occupations by generative AI:

1. Dredge Operators
2. Bridge and Lock Tenders
3. Water Treatment Plant and System Operators
4. Foundry Mold and Coremakers
5. Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
6. Pile Driver Operators
7. Floor Sanders and Finishers
8. Orderlies
9. Motorboat Operators
10. Logging Equipment Operators

The top 40 most affected occupations by generative AI:

1. Interpreters and Translators
2. Historians
3. Passenger Attendants
4. Sales Representatives of Services
5. Writers and Authors
6. Customer Service Representatives
7. CNC Tool Programmers
8. Telephone Operators
9. Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
10. Broadcast Announcers and Radio DJs
11. Brokerage Clerks
12. Farm and Home Management Educators
13. Telemarketers
14. Concierges
15. Political Scientists
16. News Analysts, Reporters, Journalists
17. Mathematicians
18. Technical Writers
19. Proofreaders and Copy Markers
20. Hosts and Hostesses
21. Editors
22. Business Teachers, Postsecondary
23. Public Relations Specialists
24. Demonstrators and Product Promoters
25. Advertising Sales Agents
26. New Accounts Clerks
27. Statistical Assistants
28. Counter and Rental Clerks
29. Data Scientists
30. Personal Financial Advisors
31. Archivists
32. Economics Teachers, Postsecondary
33. Web Developers
34. Management Analysts
35. Geographers
36. Models
37. Market Research Analysts
38. Public Safety Telecommunicators
39. Switchboard Operators
40. Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images—demaerre

• Gen Z can get a one-way ticket to the millionaires’ club sooner than they may think, according to multimillionaire venture capitalist and Shark Tank star Rashaun Williams. It all comes down to three simple steps: establishing an emergency fund, maxing out retirement accounts, and keeping investments simple, he exclusively tells Fortune.

Dreams of a comfortable retirement feel increasingly out of reach for young people—especially as even boomers, who spent decades saving, are now being forced back into the workforce. For Gen Z, it’s easy to feel hopeless and turn to bad financial habits like doom spending as a coping mechanism.

But the possibility of Gen Z retiring as millionaires may not be as complicated as the generation thinks it is. With proper financial planning, Gen Z can easily have seven figures to their name, according to Rashaun Williams, a multimillionaire venture capitalist returning as a guest judge on Shark Tank this upcoming season. 

The secret, he tells Fortune, relies on just following three simple steps: establishing an emergency fund, maxing out retirement accounts, and keeping investments simple.

The ‘Shark Tank’ investor’s 3 steps for Gen Z wanting to become millionaires: 1. Create an emergency fund

The path toward million-dollar wealth can’t begin without planning for the unexpected, such as a job loss or medical emergency. Williams says an emergency fund should start with saving up three months worth of expenses into your savings account.

“Make sure you have enough cash for a rainy day, so you’re not pulling from your 401(k) prematurely,” Williams tells Fortune.

For those who want to be a little extra careful—or are unlucky enough to have  life throw wrenches their way—many financial institutions, like Wells Fargo, suggest that up to six months’ worth of expenses could be worth it.

2. Maxing out your 401(k) and Roth IRA

Saving money using tax-advantaged accounts, like a 401(k) or Roth IRA, remains one of the most efficient ways to grow your wealth. Williams says Gen Z  should try to put as much money within their budgets into retirement accounts.

“If you just do that from 25 to 50 years old, you’re going to retire a millionaire,” Williams says. “…Just by maxing out your 401(k), it grows tax deferred, and it goes in tax-free. There’s no better return than to get your returns without taxes.”

The standard 401(k) limit for employee salary deferrals is about $23,500 in 2025. The maximum amount you can contribute each year to a Roth IRA is $7,000 for those under 50 (though your income must be below a certain adjusted income threshold).

Fidelity recommends individuals save at least 15% of their annual income for retirement—something that can be a tough ask for those Gen Z early in their career. 

But, it’s a number that fellow Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has echoed: “Take 15% of your salary each week, or every two weeks when you get paid, and put it into an investment account, and never touch it until you turn 65,” O’Leary told Us Weekly in 2023. “That’s how you will retire a multimillionaire.”

In reality, the average savings rate is about 14.1%, according to Fidelity. Taking advantage of any employer match program is also important.

3. Keep investments simple

While there are many ways to invest money—including seemingly fun opportunities like individual stocks or cryptocurrencies—Williams encourages people to keep their choices simple. He specifically called out S&P 500 indexes as one of the best places to invest, with a long history of sustained growth. After all, it delivered an average return of about 10% over the last century, helping usher an unprecedented level of millionaires and billionaires.

“You don’t have to get cute, you don’t need international, you don’t need bonds. You’re not 90 years old. Just do S&P,” Williams tells Fortune.

4. A bonus tip for Gen Z wanting to become millionaires before retirement

For many young people, becoming a millionaire is more than just a retirement dream—it’s an aspiration they want to hit as soon as possible. And while for some, hitting financial goals will mean temporarily saying goodbye to expensive lattes or a vacation to Europe, one of the best ways to build wealth is to simply create your own venture.

“Start something that you can invest in, that you can grow, and start your own business,” said multimillionaire Shark Tank investor Robert Herjavec. “It’s the only path to wealth.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy of Shark Tank