On Friday, U.S. time, after SpaceX was officially listed on Nasdaq, Elon Musk became the first individual in the world to have a net worth of more than one trillion U.S. dollars. According to calculations based on Bloomberg data, based on the company's pre-IPO pricing and the jump in stock prices after the market opened, Musk's "paper wealth" has exceeded US$1 trillion.
According to the IPO pricing, SpaceX’s offering is priced at $135 per share. At this price, as the founder and CEO of SpaceX, Musk’s shares in the company are worth approximately US$860 billion. Coupled with his holdings in Tesla and the floating profit brought about by the continuous rise in SpaceX's stock price in early trading on the first day of listing, Musk's total wealth has crossed the trillion-dollar threshold for the first time on the books. While firmly ranking as the "world's richest man", he has left other rich people far behind.
SpaceX's trading performance on its first day of trading further pushed up this number. In early trading on Friday, SpaceX's stock price continued to rise, causing the market value corresponding to Musk's holdings to rapidly expand. At this critical point in time, Musk's personal reputation and social controversy have also amplified simultaneously: on the one hand, the companies he controls have unprecedented influence in many fields such as aerospace, automobiles, satellite Internet, and artificial intelligence; on the other hand, his radical intervention in the field of politics and public policy has made him one of the most controversial business leaders in American society today.
Reports pointed out that Musk provided approximately US$300 million in financial support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, and served as the head of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" after Trump returned to the White House. However, judging from the information disclosed by the outside world, this agency did not significantly reduce the overall federal government expenditure as its name suggests. Instead, it created new uncertainties and risks by hastily canceling a large number of government contracts.
What is even more controversial is that Musk led the dismantling of agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) during the adjustment of the new government structure. Some studies point out that analysis by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health believes that the closure of USAID and the sudden halt of related aid projects have caused "hundreds of thousands of deaths" worldwide. Against this background, on the one hand, Musk's wealth and power have increased due to the listing of SpaceX, but on the other hand, he has encountered unprecedented criticism and doubts from public opinion and academic circles.
For Musk, the SpaceX IPO is just a new starting point on his wealth curve, not the end. Previously, Tesla's shareholder meeting had approved a huge compensation package with a potential value of up to US$1 trillion, provided that Musk continues to increase Tesla's market value and complete a series of operating indicators in the next few years. If these conditions are met, this compensation plan alone may create another "trillion-level" source of wealth.
At the same time, Musk also set quite symbolic terms within SpaceX: 1 billion of SpaceX shares cannot be sold until the company achieves its goal of "establishing a human colony on Mars." Although SpaceX itself admitted in the document that this goal is "unlikely" to be achieved within the foreseeable time, this does not prevent Musk from borrowing from financial institutions in the form of share pledges, thereby obtaining billions or more dollars of liquidity in advance without actually cashing out or triggering capital gains tax.
SpaceX's landing in the capital market has not weakened Musk's absolute control over the company. Instead, the listing structure further solidified his control. According to public information, Musk holds more than 80% of the voting rights of SpaceX. He not only has substantial control over all major decisions of the company, but also has the decisive say in selecting board members. Through the special shareholding structure and corporate charter design, SpaceX has largely limited the space for external shareholders and potential lawsuits to check and balance management, giving Musk almost "monarch-like" control over the company that is "chasing the largest addressable market in history."
In addition to aerospace businesses such as rocket launches and Starship, SpaceX’s commercial territory also includes the Starlink satellite Internet and the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence computing power business. On the eve of listing, SpaceX and its affiliated company xAI signed large computing power lease contracts with AI giants such as Anthropic and Google to lock in cash flow in the form of prepayments and long-term service agreements, improve the balance sheet, and pave the way for the IPO. Analysts believe that these layouts at the intersection of space and AI not only support SpaceX's high valuation expectations, but also further strengthen Musk's bargaining chip and bargaining power in the new round of technology competition.
Under the spotlight of global capital markets and public opinion, Elon Musk has reached a new high ground of power as "the world's first trillionaire". But along with SpaceX's historic IPO came not only record-breaking wealth figures, but also fierce debates around the gap between rich and poor, democratic checks and balances, the role of government and the boundaries of corporate power. For a world where almost unprecedented wealth and influence are concentrated in the hands of one person, this discussion about Musk has just begun.