Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX IPO

According to Bloomberg News, Elon Musk has officially become the world’s first trillionaire. The milestone was reached on Friday following the public market debut of SpaceX, combined with his existing stake in Tesla, which pushed his on-paper wealth to more than $1,000,000,000,000. The rocket company’s stock began trading on Friday, immediately popping and continuing to climb in early trading, further increasing Musk’s valuation.

The financial breakdown of Musk’s current and potential wealth includes:

• SpaceX holdings: Musk owns roughly $860 billion worth of SpaceX stock, priced at $135 per share ahead of the IPO. He also holds 1 billion of his SpaceX shares that cannot be sold unless the company creates a human colony on Mars, though he can borrow against them in the meantime.
• Tesla holdings: Musk maintains a significant stake in Tesla, alongside a shareholder-awarded pay package that could be worth $1 trillion if operational and valuation milestones are met.
• Voting control: Musk retains more than 80% of the voting control at SpaceX, allowing him to hand-select the board of directors and limit legal challenges.

Musk’s financial rise coincides with his growing political influence. In 2024, Musk funded Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with around $300 million. He subsequently led the Department of Government Efficiency, which did not cut overall government spending and mostly involved canceling a number of contracts with little review or care for their contents. Musk also led the dismantling of whole departments like USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, this dismantling has already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

While SpaceX now has public shareholders, Musk retains immense power. Even as SpaceX itself characterizes its goal of creating a human colony on Mars as “improbable,” the structure of his shareholdings allows him to access billions of dollars in tax-free liquidity by borrowing against his 1 billion SpaceX shares.

Why it matters

Musk’s wealth milestone follows the historic IPO of SpaceX, which grants him immense power over the company’s future and access to significant liquidity.