Elon Musk hasn’t yet achieved his dream of putting humans on Mars but he has reached another milestone that once seemed unimaginable. Thanks to the blockbuster stock market debut of SpaceX, he will go down in history as the world’s first-ever trillionaire.
Musk’s fortune rocketed to an extraordinary $1.2 trillion almost immediately after SpaceX, his hugely successful space technology company, raised $75 billion in a record-breaking Initial Public Offering (IPO) on New York’s Nasdaq exchange. In an audacious display of showmanship, the company launched one of its giant Falcon 9 space rockets just before it listed.
SpaceX shares soared from their listing price of $135 to $176.52 within hours of their market debut, a gain of 30 per cent. At this price, SpaceX was valued at roughly $2.2 trillion. Both retail investors and institutional buyers piled in, eager to gain exposure to a business that has transformed the global space industry.
Friday’s share market goldrush propelled SpaceX into the ranks of the biggest US corporate giants. On its first day of trading, it became the sixth most valuable listed company in the United States, behind only technology titans Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.
The maverick billionaire’s stake in SpaceX is estimated to be $690 billion at the IPO price. His holdings in Tesla makes him richer by another $290 billion. He also owns significant stakes in xAI, the artificial intelligence company merged with his social media platform X, as well as Neuralink, which is developing brain-computer interfaces.
His personal fortune is now equivalent to almost one-quarter of India's estimated $4.1 trillion economy.
The scale of Musk's wealth is difficult to comprehend. He is worth more than one million million dollars. He could spend $50 million every day for decades without making any dent in his fortune. Forbes estimates that he could pay off the medical debts of every American five times over. And if he wanted to spend his money another way he could splurge and buy 25 million Tesla Model Y cars.
The SpaceX IPO is the largest of all time, easily eclipsing the previous record set by Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco, which raised $38-billion in its market debut in 2019.
The buying mania appears to have ignored the fact that despite its spectacular growth, SpaceX is constantly running up huge debts and doesn't look like it will turn a profit in the foreseeable future. SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell has repeatedly warned investors that the company operates on very long time horizons and should not be judged on short-term earnings.
Shotwell was one of two executives who rang the Nasdaq opening bell on Friday. “Elon founded this company to build rockets and spaceships that would take humans to Mars, the moon and even beyond.”
“We’ve not quite gotten to Mars,” she said, but the IPO was another kind of moonshot, Eight years ago, she said SpaceX wouldn’t do an IPO until it was running regular missions to Mars.
Many market analysts say they are incredulous at the SpaceX valuations. One analyst, Keith Snyder, told the Wall Street Journal that the most bullish estimates would put SpaceX’s value at under $2 trillion, adding that the growth needed to justify that figure would be “borderline comical”. Another analyst said that after considering both spectacular success scenarios and disappointing outcomes, and weighting them according to their likelihood, he calculated that the stock is really worth about $63 per share.
SpaceX accumulated debts of $4.95 billion in 2025 despite generating revenues of $18.7 billion. Much of its earnings come from Starlink, its satellite-based broadband business, which serves 12.7 million customers worldwide. The service provides high-speed internet access to remote regions, disaster zones and conflict areas and has become one of the company's most profitable operations.
The company's dominance of the commercial launch market, meanwhile, is unmatched. SpaceX had 170 launches in 2025, which is far ahead of all rivals, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Musk’s company has also pioneered reusable rocket technology. But many of its launches are to put its own Starlink satellites into space which is one reason why its profits aren’t higher.
Musk's lead over every other billionaire on the wealth charts is now staggering. The next wealthiest person on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list is Google’s Larry Page whose fortune stands at $295.3 billion, less than one-third of Musk’s riches. India, by contrast, is home to 229 billionaires, according to Forbes. That puts it in third position behind the US and China for the largest number of billionaires. Billionaire Gautam Adani this week once again overtook oil and petrochemicals magnate Mukesh Ambani to become India's richest man. Adani was worth $89.2 billion on Friday, according to Forbes, narrowly ahead of Ambani, at $88.1 billion.
All Musk’s wealth has come despite the fact that the last 18 months have been a roller-coaster ride for him. He joined President Donald Trump’s administration with the avowed intention of slashing government costs by savagely cutting staff numbers. But his Department of Government Efficiency caused chaos and he quit after a highly publicised falling-out with Trump.
In addition, his company Tesla is facing intense competition in China, one of its top markets. Chinese automobile company BYD has shot past Tesla in several key markets. In the US itself, many traditional Tesla buyers have been boycotting the brand because they find Musk's politics too polarising.
His ownership of X has given him a strong platform from which to promote his far-right political views. After the stabbing of a white man by a person of colour last week in Northern Ireland, he has been accused of using X to amplify calls for violence in Belfast. He has also called for the release of jailed British far-right anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson.
Amazingly, despite his riches, Musk does not own his own home. He also has a complex family life. He has been married twice and fathered at least 14 children with four women. He believes declining birth rates are one of the biggest risks facing civilisation.
Although Tesla recently opened a showroom in Hyderabad, Musk appears increasingly frustrated with India. He has repeatedly sought policy concessions from New Delhi and has shown signs of cooling enthusiasm for expanding further in the country.