Musk Becomes First Trillionaire as SpaceX Debuts at
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- Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday, with a net worth of $1.11tn per the Bloomberg rich list, after SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq at a $2.2tn valuation.
- SpaceX shares were offered at $135, opened at $150, hit $176.50 and closed near $161; the IPO raised $75bn from investors and underwriters.
- SpaceX lost more than $9bn across 2025 and 2026 and remains unprofitable, with its $2.2tn valuation tied to future potential in rockets, Starlink satellites and AI — the latter entered via SpaceX's acquisition of xAI.
- Musk's 42% ownership stake gives him unilateral control over SpaceX, and the listing made millionaires of more than 4,400 current and former staff; Musk himself cannot sell his SpaceX stock for at least a year.
- The milestone reignited wealth-inequality debate — Musk's fortune rivals the entire GDP of Poland or Switzerland — with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders condemning the moment and Warren calling it a "wake up call" for wealth taxes.
- Musk's political footprint featured prominently: he gave hundreds of millions to Donald Trump's re-election, led the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) and oversaw the closure of USAID — closures that researchers in the Lancet warned could cause 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
- Investors sounded caution: Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tengler Investments called SpaceX's AI business a "cash incinerator," and Susannah Streeter of Wealth Club said Friday's rally was "driven as much by hype and scarcity as fundamentals."
Why it matters: SpaceX's $2.2tn debut crowns a company that lost more than $9bn in 2025-26 and is unprofitable, meaning Musk's trillionaire status rests on investor faith in unproven lunar-economy and orbital-data-center plans — a bet that, if it falters, directly exposes the retirement accounts of everyday index-fund holders.
