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Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday after SpaceX opened trading on the Nasdaq at $150 a share, pushing his combined stake in the rocket company and Tesla past $1.05 trillion. The debut added more than $180 billion to Musk's fortune in a single session. His SpaceX holding is now worth more than $766 billion, while his Tesla stake sits at roughly $280 billion after the electric-vehicle maker's shares rose almost 2 percent to about $406.
SpaceX shares climbed roughly 20 percent to close just above $160, valuing the company at more than $2 trillion. The paper gain makes Musk wealthier than the next five richest billionaires combined and puts his personal net worth above the national GDP of Taiwan, Ireland or Sweden. The milestone is likely to intensify debate over wealth inequality and the concentration of power among America's tech founders. The offering also minted thousands of new millionaires and several new billionaires among SpaceX employees and executives who held stock.
Forbes first listed Musk as a billionaire in 2012 with an estimated $2.4 billion. His fortune reached $20 billion in 2019 and accelerated after a Tesla stock split, making him the world's fifth centibillionaire. In the six years since, his net worth has grown roughly tenfold at a pace unmatched by previous titleholders Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Bernard Arnault.
Google co-founder Larry Page ranks a distant second with an estimated $295 billion, according to Forbes. Fellow co-founder Sergey Brin, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Oracle's Larry Ellison each hold more than $200 billion as of Friday. Forbes estimates Gates' fortune would stand at $464 billion had he not directed vast sums to philanthropy.
Investors will now watch whether SpaceX can sustain a valuation above $2 trillion as a public company and whether Musk's dual role at Tesla and SpaceX creates governance questions for shareholders in both.