Elon Musk on Friday became the world’s first trillionaire after shares in his rocket company SpaceX soared during the biggest-ever stock market debut, cementing his status as the richest person on the planet with a net worth of $1.11tn (£828bn) according to the Bloomberg rich list.
The achievement came as SpaceX, which also owns X, Grok and Starlink, listed on the Nasdaq exchange with a value of $2.2tn. The company had offered shares at $135 each, but trading opened at $150 and briefly hit $176.50 before closing at about $161, reflecting intense investor enthusiasm for Musk’s ventures into space, telecommunications and artificial intelligence. The initial public offering raised $75bn from investors and underwriters before the shares hit the open market.
“Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX’s record $2.2tn stock market debut.”
Musk’s 42% ownership stake in SpaceX gives him essentially unilateral control over the company. According to Bloomberg, his shares in SpaceX were worth $767.1bn at close of trade, with another $53.8bn in options. He also holds $168bn in Tesla shares and $116.4bn in Tesla options. Yet his trillionaire status is largely on paper, as he cannot sell any SpaceX stock for at least a year.
Such unheard-of wealth immediately sparked debate about inequality. Democratic US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among a slew of politicians to condemn the milestone. Warren called it a “wake up call” and argued it underlines the need for wealth taxes. Musk’s fortune is now comparable to the entire economic output of Poland or Switzerland.
Musk has become a powerful and divisive figure in global politics. He gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and led the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge), where his drastic cuts closed the US Agency for International Development. Such cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a warning in the Lancet medical journal. He has also repeatedly clashed with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, including over the murder of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak.
Justine Musk, his first wife, once wrote that her ex-husband was “not a man who takes no for an answer”. “The will to compete and dominate, that made him so successful in business, did not magically shut off when he came home,” she recalled, adding that he told her while dancing at their wedding: “I am the alpha in this relationship.”
The SpaceX debut comes as US consumer sentiment improved slightly in June due to easing gas prices, but remains at historically low levels amid the Iran war and rising inflation, according to a University of Michigan survey. Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys, said: “Views of the economy are still relatively dour… Consumers feel burdened by the recent escalation in inflation.” Nearly 76% of US voters rated economic conditions as fair or poor, a Times/Siena poll found, underscoring the gap between stock market records and everyday struggles.