SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering, and the sale pushed Elon Musk’s net worth past $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes and Reuters calculations based on company filings. That makes him the first trillionaire.
Before the shares went on sale, Forbes had put his fortune at roughly $780 billion. Most of the gain sits in SpaceX, where his stake is worth about $866 billion. Matt Durot, deputy editor at Forbes Wealth, noted how far ahead Musk is: the next richest person has hovered around $300 billion, and “only one other person, (Oracle founder) Larry Ellison, has ever been worth $400 billion.”
The offering
SpaceX priced its shares at $135 and opened trading at $150, according to BTCC, which reported a valuation past $2 trillion. Before the sale, the company had planned to offer 555,555,555 shares at the $135 price, aiming for a $1.75 trillion valuation. Musk is board chair and holds 42% of the common stock along with options.
Investors are betting on him, analysts say. “Much like Tesla, SpaceX is a bet on Elon Musk,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital. Reuters adds that SpaceX remains cash-hungry, and that much of its valuation rests on technology that could take years or decades to become commercially viable.
Dogecoin gained nearly 6% after the Nasdaq debut, though no announcement tied the coin to the offering.
Critics speak up
Oxfam America called the milestone “a new pinnacle of oligarchy and a dark day for democracy.” Nabil Ahmed, the group’s senior director of economic justice, said “a trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy.”
Oxfam worked out that spending $1 million a day, Musk would need 2,740 years to get through $1 trillion. It also estimated that a 10% tax on $1 trillion could end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.
The group pointed to his short stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, which it said gutted foreign aid programs and went after the Social Security Administration. It noted that he got the role after putting a small slice of his wealth behind Donald Trump and Republican candidates in the 2024 election, and that he is spending heavily again to help Republicans in the 2026 midterms. Musk later fell out with Trump over policy and spending, Reuters reports, though the two have since struck a more conciliatory tone.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission with “extreme concern” that the IPO could flop. Index providers, she said, were rewriting their rules to fast-track SpaceX into their indexes and the retirement funds that follow them. “The net result could be disastrous,” she wrote.
Admirers and the Muskonomy
Supporters see it differently. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said, “Elon is the Edison of our time.” Bob Lutz, a former General Motors vice chairman, credited Musk with renewing “the world’s respect for American ingenuity in automotive engineering.”
Market watchers have a name for the web of companies around him, the “Muskonomy.” Some investors speak of an “Elon premium” in valuations.
Sources
- SpaceX IPO Propels Elon Musk to Trillionaire Status as Dogecoin Nears Critical Breakout
- SpaceX IPO propels Elon Musk to world's first trillionaire status
- 'A New Pinnacle of Oligarchy': Elon Musk Poised to Become World's First Trillionaire | Common Dreams
