Elon Musk Becomes World’s First Trillionaire as SpaceX Goes Public

Elon Musk is now worth more than $1 trillion. That number — once considered impossible — became real on Friday when SpaceX began trading on the stock market and its shares immediately soared.
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share. By the end of trading, the stock had climbed to $160.95. The company hit markets at a valuation of nearly $2 trillion, making it the largest IPO of all time.
Before the IPO, Musk was worth an estimated $813 billion — more than twice the net worth of the world’s second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page, who sits at around $288 billion. After Friday’s trading, Musk is now worth more than the world’s next four richest people combined.

How Did This Happen

Musk owns 4.8 billion shares of SpaceX — about 42% of the company — plus 350 million stock options. At $135 a share, his stake alone was worth $648 billion. Add his Tesla holdings, X, and xAI, and the trillion-dollar figure becomes real.
As recently as summer 2024, Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault were swapping the title of world’s richest person with net worths around $200 billion. Now, not even two years later, Musk’s fortune is twice Bezos and Arnault combined.

What Is SpaceX

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. The company builds reusable rockets and operates Starlink — a satellite internet network serving rural areas, airlines, and the Ukrainian military. Earlier this year, SpaceX merged with xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, and now also controls X, formerly known as Twitter.

Not Just Musk Getting Rich

About 4,400 SpaceX workers are expected to become millionaires as a result of the IPO. This is not just a win for one man — thousands of employees who joined early and took stock options are seeing life-changing money.

The Risk Nobody Is Talking About

SpaceX’s IPO valuation was roughly 94 times revenue — compared to Meta at 22 times and Amazon at 18 times when they went public. That is an enormous premium. Between early 2025 and March 2026, the company lost $8.7 billion. Investors are betting on the future, not the present.
The company is losing billions every year. Investors are paying trillions anyway. That’s either genius or a bubble — nobody knows yet.
Source: CBS News, ABC News, Bloomberg, Washington Post, PBS