Elon Musk Becomes World’s First Former Trillionaire

Elon Musk has become the world’s first former trillionaire after steep declines in Tesla and SpaceX shares wiped roughly $200 billion from his net worth.

Musk joked about becoming the world’s first former trillionaire on Friday after his fortune briefly dipped below $1 trillion.

At the height of the SpaceX IPO frenzy, Musk’s fortune hit $1.3 trillion as shares surged from their $135 IPO price to as high as $225 before retreating to $112 on Monday. 

The massive swings are consistent with past IPOs, with new stocks often swinging 30-50% as the market digests excitement and volatility. However, the former trillionaire’s automaker also experienced a massive swing on Wednesday. Tesla erased a year of gains when shares fell 18% after the company reported a second-quarter operating profit of $400 million that was well below Wall Street’s expectations of $1.72 billion. 

Stocks tied to Musk tend to be especially volatile because investors are betting on the companies’ potential rather than their current standing.

Tesla’s valuation reflects expectations that it will dominate autonomous driving while expanding into robotaxis, Optimus humanoid robots, and artificial intelligence. SpaceX, while a rocket company, is also promising to establish data centers in space, with the company now owning xAI. 

The swings are compounded by the fact that Musk is an unusually active public figure, often posting multiple times a day on his social media platform, X. His comments, product announcements, and political statements can quickly shift investor sentiment and trigger sharp moves in his companies’ stock prices.

Despite the sharp drop from his trillionaire peak, dramatic swings in Musk’s fortune are par for the course. On June 29, his net worth jumped by more than $60 billion in a single day, and on October 24, he added another $30 billion after Tesla reported stronger-than-expected earnings. With a majority of Musk’s wealth tied to the market value of his companies, small percentage moves in their stock prices can translate into tens of billions of dollars gained or lost in a matter of seconds.