Elon Musk Becomes the First Person Worth More Than $1 Trillion

Elon Musk became the first person in history whose estimated net worth has crossed $1 trillion, after SpaceX, the company he founded, was listed on the U.S. stock market on Friday. SpaceX opened trading about 20% higher, giving it an estimated value of roughly $2 trillion and making it the world’s sixth-largest company, ahead of giants such as Meta and Tesla.

Musk owns 46% of SpaceX. Combined with his holdings in Tesla and other companies, the surge in SpaceX’s valuation pushed his assets above the $1 trillion threshold. The report stressed that this is paper wealth, not cash in the bank, and that his fortune still depends on continued investor confidence.

Musk also holds Tesla shares and options worth more than $300 billion. The SpaceX listing is expected to add more than $800 billion to his wealth, taking the combined value of his stakes in the two companies past $1 trillion for the first time.

The article noted that SpaceX is no longer just a space company. In recent months, Musk has folded his AI firm xAI, along with the X social network, into the broader business, creating uncertainty over what investors are actually buying. Former NASA economist Cindy Sullivan told BBC that the merger makes SpaceX hard to define, saying the brand is built on two decades of rockets, but most spending now goes to data centers and an AI company that looks like a social network. Guardian columnist Nils Pratley was more blunt, calling X “space junk that does not belong to SpaceX.”