Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday after shares in SpaceX surged during the biggest stock market debut on record.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder strengthened his position as the world’s richest person, with his total net worth reaching $1.11 trillion, according to the Bloomberg rich list.
The milestone came after SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a valuation of $2.2 trillion.
SpaceX offered its shares at $135 each, but trading opened at $150 and briefly reached $176.50 as investors rushed to buy into the rocket, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company. The shares closed on Friday at around $161.
The IPO raised $75 billion from investors and underwriters before SpaceX shares entered open market trading.
Musk owns 42% of SpaceX, giving him broad control over the company and how it spends the newly raised funds.
According to Bloomberg, Musk’s SpaceX shares were worth $767.1 billion at the close of trading. He also holds another $53.8 billion in SpaceX options.
His wealth also includes $168 billion in Tesla shares and $116.4 billion in Tesla options.
Musk’s trillionaire status immediately sparked debate over wealth inequality.
His net worth is now close to the total economic output of Poland or Switzerland.
The scale of his wealth has also increased his influence in global politics. Musk gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the re-election campaign of US President Donald Trump after criticising the country’s leadership.
He also led the Department for Government Efficiency, known as Doge, for several months last year.
Through large cuts to government spending, Musk was responsible for the closure of the US Agency for International Development.
Researchers writing in the Lancet medical journal warned that such cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
Musk has also criticised leadership in the UK and other countries, often on immigration and racial issues.
He has repeatedly clashed with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, including over the murder of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak.
Democratic US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among the politicians who criticised the trillionaire milestone. Warren said it should be a “wake-up call” and argued that it shows the need for wealth taxes.
Musk’s trillionaire status is mostly on paper because most of his wealth is tied to his holdings in Tesla and SpaceX.
He cannot sell any of his SpaceX stock for at least one year.
The SpaceX listing is also expected to have made more than 4,400 current and former employees millionaires through company shares they received as part of their pay.
SpaceX’s valuation is largely based on expectations for future earnings, rather than current financial results.
The company is not profitable and is losing more money from operations than it makes.
According to its financial filings, SpaceX lost more than $9 billion in 2025 and 2026 so far because of heavy spending on AI and other infrastructure investments.
SpaceX’s main business remains the manufacturing and launch of rockets with reusable parts.
The company also manufactures and launches Starlink internet satellites.
Through this year’s acquisition of xAI, another company owned and operated by Musk, SpaceX has also entered the AI business.
SpaceX said it will use the IPO funds to support its growth strategy around rockets, Starlink satellites and AI, including speculative plans to build data centres in orbit.
Nancy Tengler, who heads Laffer Tengler Investments and placed an order to buy SpaceX shares, called the company’s AI business a “cash incinerator” despite Musk’s ambitions.
She said investors should treat some of the projections with caution.
However, Tengler said she is buying into SpaceX because of its long-term potential, with an investment horizon of three, five and even 10 years.
She also expects SpaceX to merge with Tesla within the next two years, potentially creating a company worth more than either business alone.
SpaceX’s ambitions go far beyond satellites or corporate mergers.
In its IPO prospectus, the company said its mission is to build the systems and technologies needed to make life multiplanetary, understand the universe and extend human consciousness to the stars.
SpaceX also said its future growth depends heavily on building what it calls the “lunar economy.”
This would involve regularly transporting people and cargo to the moon and Mars, creating the basis for a real economy around space activity.
However, SpaceX admitted that it is not certain such plans will succeed.
The company said many of its initiatives involve major technical complexity, unproven technologies, or technologies that do not yet exist and may never become commercially viable.
Protesters staged an anti-Musk demonstration in New York City’s Times Square before the listing.
Despite the concerns, investors pushed SpaceX shares higher on Friday.
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said the jump in the share price showed strong interest in Musk’s vision.
However, she warned that the rally was being driven by hype and scarcity as much as fundamentals.
Many individual investors were eager to buy SpaceX stock, but others raised concerns about people becoming exposed to the company indirectly.
Pension pots and savings accounts often invest in index-linked funds, which buy shares in the biggest companies and could be affected by SpaceX’s future share price moves.
Samel Kerr, who leads equity capital markets research for Mergermarket, said the real question is not how SpaceX trades immediately after the IPO, but how the price holds over the longer term.
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