Elon Musk is world's first trillionaire after SpaceX IPO

In a post on the social media platform he owns, Elon Musk recently lamented, "Whoever said ‘money can't buy happiness' really knew what they were talking about."

Now the world's richest person can put that maxim to an even bigger test as he adds a new title: world's first trillionaire.

Shares of SpaceX rose 19% Friday to $160.95 each in their first day of trading, vaulting the value of the rocket and AI company Musk founded to $2.2 trillion. His fortune now stands at the once-unimaginable figure of $1.1 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's more than three times that of the world's second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page.

It was less than 10 years ago that Bloomberg's wealth index registered its first fortune of more than $100 billion - a milestone Musk blew past in 2020. He has since come to dominate the ranks of the world's richest, first as Tesla Inc. evolved into one of the all-time best performing stocks and later as investors scrambled for a piece of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as SpaceX is formally known, now among the world's most valuable companies.

A trillion-dollar fortune - roughly equivalent to Switzerland's gross domestic product - almost defies comprehension. Steve Cohen, who made $3.4 billion last year as the world's highest-earning hedge fund manager, would have to earn that amount for almost 300 years before reaching a trillion. Each of Musk's 14 children would rank among the world's 30 richest individuals if they inherited equal shares of his estate.

"We're not talking about generational wealth," said Dan Walter, an independent pay consultant. "We're talking about infinite."

It's a watershed moment for Musk, 54, whose wealth has already made him one of the globe's most powerful and divisive individuals. And he hasn't hesitated to deploy his fortune in pursuit of his vision: Buying social-media company Twitter in 2022 to defend against "the woke mind virus," funding an AI chatbot that embraces much of his worldview and helping propel Donald Trump to a second term in the White House through donations.

The more than $291 million he spent on the 2024 federal election represents less than 0.03% of his current net worth - the equivalent of a $291 donation for a millionaire.

Bumpy road

Still, Musk's journey from billionaire to trillionaire has had its share of hiccups.

His purchase of Twitter in 2022 led him to sell more than $15 billion in Tesla shares, helping sink the car company's stock for what quickly looked like an overpay. The $56 billion Tesla "moonshot" compensation deal he negotiated in 2018 was struck down by a Delaware judge after some investors filed a lawsuit. And his decision to join Trump's Department of Government Efficiency and support for fringe political movements turned off millions of potential customers, shrinking Tesla's car sales.

Somehow, though, Musk skated through. Twitter, later renamed X, saw the value of its data soar from AI demand, and he eventually merged it with xAI, his own artificial intelligence startup. Tesla relocated to Texas from California and last year won an appeal allowing Musk to keep his original pay package, while also awarding him a new deal worth as much as $1 trillion if the company meets certain targets. And Tesla's investors have looked past declining car sales to focus on future offerings like robotaxis and Optimus robots.

SpaceX soars

While Musk's rise to trillionaire is largely due to SpaceX, the Starbase, Texas-headquartered company he founded in 2002, it was Tesla that initially powered his rise up the ranks of the world's richest. Shares of the Austin-based electric-car maker - where Musk remains the largest owner - have gained about 35,000% since the company went public in 2010.

But SpaceX's dominance in the orbital launch market, along with the satellite broadband service Starlink it began offering in 2019, attracted growing attention from investors. Valued at about $100 billion in a 2021 investment round, that number had jumped to $1 trillion by February after Musk merged it with xAI and social media network X. The combined business - which now holds the record for largest ever initial public offering after raising $75 billion - makes up more than 70% of his net worth.

Musk's fortune remains largely on paper with few assets outside of holdings in his own companies, according to Bloomberg's wealth index. If he were to liquidate a stake in any of his businesses it could sink their value with his investors.

Still, Tesla and SpaceX have compensation deals to pay Musk, the CEO at both firms, additional equity awards should the companies make a series of ambitious financial and operational milestones. If all the targets are hit the value of both deals combined would be worth roughly $1.8 trillion.

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