Elon Musk Becomes the World's First Trillionaire with SpaceX IPO

SpaceX priced its shares at $135 each Thursday evening, setting the stage for trading to begin Friday, June 12, under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq.

In an unprecedented move, the deal has successfully raised an astonishing $75 billion, setting the stage for the largest initial public offering in history! With this milestone, the company’s value soars close to an impressive $1.8 trillion.

Elon Musk, who controls roughly 42% of SpaceX, stands to see his stake valued at hundreds of billions from this alone.

Combined with his Tesla holdings, estimates put his net worth at or just below $1 trillion as trading starts, with any early pop in the stock likely pushing him over the line as the first person to reach that mark.

Forbes recently reported Musk's net worth at $982.6 billion, while Bloomberg put the figure at around $971 billion.

For context, Musk's fortune has climbed in steep stages:

First to $300 billion in 2021, then accelerating through 2025 and into 2026 on Tesla's performance and private-market gains at SpaceX. The IPO crystallizes much of that paper wealth in public markets.

The SpaceX IPO price alone adds a massive lift to the world's richest man's wealth.

The filing showed SpaceX brought in $18.7 billion in revenue for 2025, up 33% from the prior year.

Starlink, the satellite internet arm, drove most of that with over 10 million users and solid profitability. The launch business and other operations added more.

Yet the bottom line told a different story as the company posted a $4.9 billion net loss in 2025 after turning a profit the year before.

Heavy spending on AI initiatives, capital projects, and development pushed Q1 2026 losses to nearly $4.3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA stayed positive at $6.58 billion for the full year.

Musk has tied the company's pitch to bigger bets: Starlink expansion, reusable rockets like Starship, orbital manufacturing, and plans for data centers in space to power AI.

The valuation rests on those future payoffs rather than today's profits.

SpaceX sold 555,555,555 shares and drew demand reported above $250 billion, more than three times oversubscribed in some accounts, as demand for the offering ran strong, with reports of orders several times the shares available.

About 20-30% went to retail investors, a slice Musk and the company courted directly.

Musk is not selling any shares in the offering and keeps tight control, with about 82% of the voting power through a special class of stock.

Only he can remove himself as CEO. Some governance watchers flagged this as thin protection for new public investors.

The IPO gives employees and early investors a chance to cash in.

Early backers, employees, and venture funds stand to gain big. Thousands of current and former staff could become millionaires on paper from equity grants.

Our estimate shows more than 4,000 staff could cross the seven-figure mark, with hundreds reaching nine figures.

Critics point to cash burn, dependence on Musk's vision, and execution risks associated with unproven elements such as massive space-based AI infrastructure.

Supporters highlight Starlink's growth, launch dominance, and the track record of cost-cutting on rockets.

Trading begins today.

The opening hours will test how the market prices this mix of proven satellite broadband, government contracts, and long-shot goals around Mars and beyond.

Musk's stake and public profile mean any movement will draw global attention.

This signals an exciting new chapter for the space industry and for Musk himself, whose ventures are now poised to include not one, but two potential trillion-dollar public powerhouses.

Wall Street now gets to price the man who bets on sending humans to Mars, dominating satellite communications, and linking space infrastructure to AI ambitions. 

The first days of SPCX trading will reveal if investors share confidence at these levels, determining whether they embrace the overall vision or focus on current financials.