Elon Musk Crosses $1 Trillion Net Worth Following Landmark SpaceX Market Debut

Elon Musk has officially become the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX made its public market debut on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.

The SpaceX founder and chief executive held approximately $860 billion worth of SpaceX stock after the company priced its shares at $135 ahead of its IPO. Combined with the value of his holdings in Tesla and the immediate rise in SpaceX shares following the start of trading, Musk’s total paper wealth has now surpassed the $1 trillion mark.

SpaceX stock continued to gain ground during early trading on Friday, further increasing Musk’s net worth.

Musk’s rise to trillionaire status comes at a time when he remains one of the most influential and polarising figures in business and politics.

Throughout much of 2024, Musk was a major financial supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing roughly $300 million. He later joined the Trump administration and took a leading role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Despite its stated goal of reducing government spending, critics argue that the initiative failed to produce meaningful cuts and instead focused largely on cancelling government contracts with limited review of their broader impact.

Musk also played a key role in the dismantling of agencies and programmes, including USAID. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, those decisions have already been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.

Additional wealth could still be headed Musk’s way.

Last year, Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package that could eventually be worth up to $1 trillion on its own, provided Musk helps increase Tesla’s valuation and meets specific operational targets. Meanwhile, although one billion of his SpaceX shares remain restricted and cannot be sold unless the company successfully establishes a human colony on Mars, Musk can still borrow against those holdings.

That ability gives him access to potentially billions of dollars in liquidity without selling stock and without triggering taxes that would normally accompany the sale of assets. While SpaceX itself has described the prospect of a large-scale Mars colony as “improbable,” the shares tied to that milestone still contribute significantly to Musk’s long-term wealth potential.

Although SpaceX now has public shareholders, Musk retains extraordinary influence over the company’s future direction. He controls more than 80% of the voting power, can effectively select members of the board of directors, and has structured the company in a way that significantly limits potential legal challenges to management decisions.

As SpaceX pursues what it describes as one of the largest addressable markets in history, Musk’s control over the company remains largely intact, even as it enters a new era as a publicly traded business.