The Tesla and SpaceX boss has become the first person reported to be worth more than $1 trillion. Forbes recently estimated his fortune at about $1.4 trillion after shares in SpaceX rose sharply following the company’s stock market debut.
It is a figure that is hard to imagine. Musk is now richer than the yearly economic output of many countries. His fortune is also close to 1% of the world’s annual GDP, which the World Bank puts at about $111 trillion.
But there is an important point to understand. Musk does not have $1.4 trillion sitting in a bank account. Most of his wealth is held in shares and stock options linked to companies such as SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and The Boring Company.
That means his wealth can rise or fall very quickly. If investors believe his companies will grow, his net worth rises. If the market turns against them, billions can disappear from his fortune in a single day.
Musk’s rise to trillionaire status came after SpaceX went public. The rocket and satellite company became one of the biggest stock market stories in the world. Investors rushed to buy into a company linked to space travel, satellite internet, defence contracts and future technology.
Reuters reported that SpaceX’s IPO raised tens of billions of dollars, making it the largest public offering in history. The strong demand pushed the company’s market value above $2 trillion and lifted Musk’s personal fortune to a level no individual had reached before.
Musk’s story did not start with rockets or electric cars.
He was born in South Africa and later moved to Canada as a teenager. He then moved to the United States, where he entered the technology business.
His first major success came through Zip2, a company he started with his brother, Kimbal Musk. In 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq for more than $300 million. The deal made Musk a multi-millionaire before he turned 30.
He later helped build X.com, an online banking company. X.com later became part of PayPal. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. Musk received his share and used much of the money to fund bigger ideas.
Those ideas became Tesla and SpaceX.
At one point, both companies were close to collapse. In 2008, Tesla was struggling, SpaceX was under pressure, and Musk came close to losing almost everything. But he continued to invest his money, time and reputation into both businesses.
Tesla later went public in 2010. As electric cars became more popular, Tesla’s value rose, and Musk’s wealth rose with it. SpaceX also grew from a risky private rocket company into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Today, Musk’s wealth is no longer built on one business. It is tied to rockets, satellites, electric cars, artificial intelligence, brain-computer technology and transport projects.
His fortune raises a serious question for the world.
Should one person be allowed to control assets worth more than the economies of many nations? Should governments tax extreme wealth more heavily? Or should society see Musk’s fortune as the reward for building companies that changed major industries?
The debate is bigger than Elon Musk. It is about wealth, power and the kind of society we want to build.
So the question is simple: what is your own net worth?
And if you were worth a trillion dollars, what would you do with the money?