Elon Musk loses trillionaire status as global tech rout hits SpaceX
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Elon Musk lost his trillionaire status on Tuesday — less than 14 days after SpaceX's June 12 Nasdaq debut made him the first person to reach the milestone — with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegging his net worth at $957bn (£727bn), down from a $1.32tn peak.
- SpaceX shares plunged more than 30% from their June 16 high of $225.64 to around $156, the sharpest reversal in the broader tech sell-off triggered by doubts over AI infrastructure costs, capital spending, and stubborn interest rates.
- Tesla compounded the damage with a nearly 6% slide a day after the SpaceX rout; Musk owns roughly 42% of SpaceX and about 12% of Tesla, with SpaceX alone representing nearly 80% of his total net worth.
- The June 22 crash was the single worst day: a 16% SpaceX drop erased an estimated $240bn from Musk's personal balance sheet, while Nvidia, Intel, and AMD also fell sharply in the same rotation.
- AJ Bell's Danni Hewson attributed the volatility to emotion-driven buying around the IPO: "a lot of decision making might have been emotional and based on the anticipation of huge leaps forward in space exploration," she said, urging investors to treat even huge numbers "with clear eyes and patience."
- Insider selling restrictions lift in late July, which market pressure may extend — but a modest 6% recovery in SpaceX's stock would restore Musk's 13-figure fortune, potentially making him the world's first recurring trillionaire.
Why it matters: Musk's loss of trillionaire status is less about a personal setback than a referendum on AI-driven tech euphoria: nearly 80% of his wealth is concentrated in SpaceX, whose 30% slide mirrors the broader rotation away from richly valued growth names like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD. The late-July insider unlock is the next concrete catalyst — if early sellers cash out, even a 6% bounce may not be enough to restore the milestone.
Ask SkimNews
